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Price $ 


PRIVATE LIBRARY 


of 
Rev. WM. H. RISSMILLER 


If thou art borrowed by a friend 
right welcome shall he be, to read, 
to study, not to lend but to return 
to me. 

Not that imparted knowledge 
doth diminish learnings’ store, but 
books I find if often lent, return to 
me no more. 

Read slowly, pause frequently, 
return duly with the corners of the 


leaves not turned down. 












































JoHN WINEBRENNER. 


HISTORY éticeicetbscrws' 


of the 


Churches of God 


NORTH AMERICA 


BY 


SOY ALIN, D..D. 


Editor of The Church Advocate 


Central Publishing, House 
Harrisbur3, Pennsylvania 


1926 








CONTENTS 


ik Historical BACKGROUND Loe he ee DLE 
II. WINEBRENNER ComMEsS UPON THE SCENE 19 
III. WuINEBRENNER’S First PasToRATE . . 27 
IV. Our Work ESTABLISHED AND ORGANIZED 33 
eR CCHURCH (UX TENSION) cit ets iy, Vo eae 
VI. Historica, CRIsks Behe ae AL ua hs 49 


VII. WuINEBRENNER—A CHARACTER SKETCH . 56 


VIII. GrowTH oF ORGANIZED ACTIVITIES... 65 
Peer UBEISHING INTERESTS le 002/503) hs) CA 
DG BDECATIONAIALV ORK ely cries sal en Mig 84 
mm DORBIGN MISSIONS 3200) fad eh GT, 
XII. Docrrina, anp Moral, QuESTIONS Sn LOK 


XIII. Our CENTENNIAL FoRwAarRD MovEMENT . 120 


9 
fet a 


ea 





ILLUSTRATIONS 


JoHN WINEBRENNER . . ..._ .Frontispiece 
WINEBRENNER HOMESTEAD . . . . . 18 
SALE MOREFORMED (OHURCH 12:4 G0) le eateie, se Mero 
PIES CHURCH wELARRISBURGH cto otiose ai cons 50 
PON PRATEUBEISHING SELOUSK OL chy sail May ie (eam 
INDE AYE COLLEGE UME ate our ntcali! Sime ramp eMece wy 91 
Mission House At ULUBARIA, INDIA... -97 
Mission House at BoGra, INpia. . ....~ (106 





INTRODUCTION 


The General Eldership of 1925 unanimously 
adopted the report of its Board of Education, which 
contained the following: 

“We recommend that the General Eldership of 
1925 take the necessary steps to have written and pub- 
lished a brief, concise, comprehensive and_ readable 
history of the Churches of God in North America, the 
same to cover our first century and close with the cele- 
bration of our centennial. We have in mind a small 
book that would appeal to our people in general, 
especially our young people, and which could be dis- 
tributed among them at a nominal cost, or, in certain 
cases, without cost; a book that would not only be 
useful for general reading but also suitable for Elder- 
ship courses of study, for Bible classes, and supple- 
mental teacher training instruction.” 

Later in the session the General Eldership voted 
“that the editor of The Church Advocate be elected to 
write the history authorized by the General Eldership.” 

The first action quoted accounts for the appear- 
ance of this book, and also, to a great extent, for its 
size and the character of its contents. It represents an 
earnest effort to carry out the instructions given, leav- 
ing the measure of success to be determined by the 
charitable judgment of the reader. 

The official action made brevity a constant re- 
minder, so that only the high points of our history have 


9 


10 Introduction 


been touched. But they are considered and related in 
such a way as to be comprehensive. 

As this book is partly intended for the use of 
students, it includes a list of suggestive questions for 
each chapter. But as it is also intended for general 
reading, these questions are placed at the end of the 
volume instead of being placed at the ends of their 
respective chapters, to avoid any interruption to con- 
tinuous reading. 

Biographical sketches, interesting as they are in a 
collection of historical material, are excluded by the 
limited scope of the present volume. A few would not 
be sufficient. A just sense of proportion would require 
many. So all are omitted, with the single exception of 
Winebrenner’s, which is included for obvious reasons. 
The same condition of limited space applies to the pic- 
tures of ministers and laymen. So the illustrations are 
limited to buildings, not that they are more important 
than men, but because there are fewer of them. 

The names of those who attained most prominence 
are given, with the exception of the last period of our 
history (1900 to 1925), which contains only the names 
of those who were connected with important enterprises 
or historical events. It was felt that those who are 
still engaged in serving their day and generation would 
prefer to finish life’s task before having their work 
appraised and being assigned to a place in history. 

This book is now committed to the brotherhood 
with the sincere prayer that it may be a helpful contri- 
bution to the need which it is intended to supply. 

S. G. YAHN. 


CHAPTER 1. 


HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 


In order to have a proper starting-point for our 
historical journey, we must imagine ourselves in eastern 
Pennsylvania a hundred years ago; to be more specific, 
in Dauphin, Lancaster, York and Cumberland counties. 

This part of the country was then in the compara- 
tively early period of its settlement, with much of the 
virgin forest still untouched. The effects of the War 
of 1812, which had ended but a decade before the time 
of which we are thinking, were still being felt, for 
Pennsylvania had furnished more money and men for 
that conflict than any other State. Farming was the 
chief pursuit of the people, and prosperous agricul- 
tural communities had been established contiguous to 
Harrisburg, Lancaster, Carlisle, York and other towns. 
For then, as now, a soil was being cultivated whose 
fertility guarantees that seed-time will produce a boun- 
tiful response in harvest-time. Manufacturing of a 
rudimentary character was carried on to a limited 
extent in the more populous centers. Means of com- 
munication and transportation were yet in _ their 
infancy. The turnpikes or toll roads had received a 
good deal of attention. The first in the country (that 
between Philadelphia and Lancaster) was located in 
1792 and finished several years later. By 1828 more 
than a thousand miles of such roads had been con- 


Dt 


12 History of the Churches of God 


structed. A crude railroad had been built between 
Philadelphia and Columbia, by a company chartered 
in 1823, which was the beginning of what is now 
known the world over as the great Pennsylvania system.. 
Canals were then receiving the special consideration 
of the people. The State, through its legislature, gave 
its financial encouragement to this project, just as it 
formerly aided in the construction of turnpikes and ~ 
later in the building of railroads. 

The people of these prosperous communities were 
industrious and thrifty. Theirs was the simple life,. 
in the midst of primitive conditions. The German 
nationality was the most numerous, with the estimates. 
of its strength varying all the way from one-fourth to: 
one-half of the population. Benjamin Franklin, when 
he appeared before the House of Commons in England’ 
in 1765 to present the objections to the Stamp Act, 
estimated the population of the province of Pennsyl- 
vania at 160,000, “of whom one-third were Germans.” 
And this one-third estimate would probably still hold 
good at the beginning of our historical narrative in. 
1825. This is the part of the population with which. 
our history, as a religious body, is chiefly concerned, 
rather than with the English, Welsh, Scotch, Irish, 
French and other nationalities. 

Most of the ancestors of these people came from 
that part of Germany known as the Palatinate. In 
their homeland they had been exceedingly heavy 
sufferers from the ravages of war during much of the 
seventeenth century and extending into the eighteenth, 
including the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). Con- 


Historical Background 13 


cerning this awful conflict between Catholics and Pro- 
testants the historian says: ‘As the fruit of this most 
terrible war, Protestantism was saved, but at a cost 
which it is difficult even to estimate. The population 
was greatly decreased; intellectually and morally the 
people suffered a great decline. Germany was disinte- 
grated, and the material losses were such that a 
complete recovery had hardly taken place at the end 
of two centuries.” Not only had there been a 
tremendous loss of life, but also a proportionate 
destruction of property of all kinds, so that the poorer 
classes of people were left in dire straits. Their daily 
toil was a continuous round of hardship, and the out- 
look for something better seemed hopeless. ‘To these 
heavy burdens of a material character were added the 
heart burdens of religious persecution, for every 
adverse wind fanned to a flame the smoldering fires 
of religious bitterness. Hence it is not strange that 
these people, like the emigrants of other nationalities, 
left their homeland to seek political and religious 
freedom in this New World. 

William Penn, in the latter part of the seventeenth 
century, had published a pamphlet called “Some 
Account of the Province of Pennsylvania.” The 
purpose of the author was to welcome the oppressed 
of all lands to his Province, and the pamphlet was 
translated into Dutch, German and French, and circu- 
lated over Europe. This, preceded by Penn’s visit to 
Germany in 1677, prepared the way for the great 
German immigration into Pennsylvania, which began 
in large numbers early in the eighteenth century. These 


14 History of the Churches of God 


people became an important element in the population 
of the Province and later of the State, and it was 
among their descendants, for the most part, that our 
work as a religious body had its beginning a hundred 
years later. In the meantime they had become well 
established and prosperous. 

Of still greater interest, so far as our present 
purpose is concerned, was the state of religion in this 
part of the country a hundred years ago. ‘Then, as 
always, the Quaker influence was felt in the life of the 
Keystone State. So also, to a greater or less extent, 
was the Presbyterian, the Methodist, the Baptist, the 
Episcopalian and that of other Protestant faiths, along 
with the Roman Catholic. ‘The Germans, for the most 
part, were members of the German Reformed and 
Lutheran Churches, but also included such bodies as 
the Mennonites, Moravians and the German Baptist 
Brethren Church. 

We are particularly interested in those of the 
German population who were identified with the 
German Reformed Church, for it was among them 
that our movement had its beginning. Their religion 
in their homeland was largely formal, and its character 
was not made better but rather worse when it was. 
transplanted to this new land. For the very freedom 
which they sought and found here, with the laxness of 
restraint which is always incident to such freedom in 
a new country, contributed to worldliness and reckless. 
living. | 
The great need of the people, including most of 
the church people, was the regenerating grace of God, 


Historical Background 15 


and the indications of such a work of grace were not 
wanting. The deplorable religious condition might 
itself be taken as a favorable sign, if we agree with 
Finney that ‘‘a wicked, formal state is one sign of a 
coming revival.’”’ But there were other evidences. 

The Methodists were promoting evangelistic move- 
ments which were reaching many souls with salvation. 
- Their work in this country had its principal beginning 
in Philadelphia, where the first Methodist meeting- 
house in America was erected in 1768. Bishop Asbury, 
who died in 1816, had left the impress of his great life 
on the religious thought of the people. 

William Otterbein, while a German Reformed 
pastor in Lancaster, after much prayer and supplica- 
tion, had a conscious experience of personal salvation, 
in the year 1754. This produced a spiritual change in 
his work which aroused opposition on the part of many 
of the Reformed people on account of their formality 
and worldliness, and started an evangelistic movement 
among others of his people which finally resulted in 
the organization of the Church of the United Brethren 
in Christ, a denomination which had a strong German 
element, and which had become quite well established 
by 1825. 

And Jacob Albright, a Lutheran (later a Metho- 
dist) lay evangelist of great ability who had a personal 
consciousness of experimental religion was instru- 
mental in a movement among the Germans of eastern 
Pennsylvania which resulted, in 1800, in the organiza- 
tion of the Evangelical Association, now the Evan- 
gelical Church. 


16 History of the Churches of God 


It will therefore be seen, that from a religious 
viewpoint, the people of eastern Pennsylvania at that 
time were divided into three classes: those who made 
no profession of religion; those whose religion con- 
sisted of a nominal membership in the church and a 
formal adherence to its tenets; and those who had 
experienced the blessings of the new birth. While 
these three classes are found in every generation, the. 
lines of distinction were much more clearly drawn 
then than now. ‘Those of the second class were worldly 
and almost destitute of vital godliness. The devoted 
souls of the third class were seeking to correct this 
condition of worldliness and formality in the church 
with the only genuine remedy—a revival of God’s 
redeeming grace. These efforts won a penitent response 
from some, but aroused the bitter opposition of others. 
These opponents, or at least their leaders, did not deny 
their need of spiritual improvement; but they opposed 
the “new measures’ for its attainment. Dr. John W. 
Nevin, one of the prominent leaders of the German 
Reformed Church, makes this clear in his small book 
called “The Anxious Bench.” He uses this name to 
include all that belonged to the “New Measures” (the 
revival methods), to which he discloses strong and 
even bitter opposition. He admits that the German 
Churches of that time needed to rise to a higher 
spiritual life; but he insists that “their resurrection 
should take place in the type of their own true, original, 
glorious life, as it is still to be found enshrined in. 
their symbolical books.” And in another work (his 
lectures on the Heidelberg Catechism) Dr. Nevin has 


Historical Background Lee 


this to say of the state of religion in the German 
Reformed Church: 

“To be confirmed and then to take the sacrament 
occasionally was counted by the multitude all that was 
necessary to make one a good Christian, if only a 
tolerable decency of outward life were maintained 
besides, without any regard at all to the religion of the 
heart. True, serious piety was indeed often treated 
with open and marked scorn. In the bosom of the 
church itself it was stigmatized as miserable, driveling 
Methodism. The idea of the new birth was treated 
as a Pietistic whimsey. Experimental religion, in all 
its forms was eschewed as a new fangled invention of 
cunning imposters, brought in to turn the heads of the 
weak, and to lead captive silly women. Prayer-meet- 
ings were held to be a spiritual abomination. Family 
worship was a species of saintly affectation, barely 
tolerable in the case of ministers (though many of 
them gloried in having no altar in their houses), but 
absolutely disgraceful for common Christians. To 
show an awakened concern on the subject of religion, 
a disposition to call on God in daily secret prayer, was 
to incur certain reproach....The picture, it must be 
acknowledged, is dark, but not more so than the truth 
of history would seem to require.” 

Opposition to revivals in the Lutheran Church 
was much the same as in the German Reformed 
Church. Dr. Benjamin Kurtz, a minister of that 
denomination in a report of his work published in the 
Lutheran Observer of January 12, 1855, says: “Some 
thirty-five years ago [1820], when God in his mercy 


18 History of the Churches of God 


sanctioned our labors with a glorious outpouring of his 
Spirit, and for the first time in our ministry granted 
us a mighty revival, the opposition of the world and 
the devil was almost unparalleled. A revival in the 
Lutheran Church was a new thing in that day. We 
had never heard of but one, and that was in Brother 
Reck’s church in Winchester, Virginia. He can testify 
to the bitterness, malevolence, and awful wickedness 
that characterized the adversaries of such divine visita- 
tions in those days of ignorance, hardness of heart, 
and spiritual blindness.” 

Such were the religious conditions in eastern 
Pennsylvania a hundred years ago. 


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WINEBRENNER HOMESTEAD. 





CHAP TH Rall: 


WINEBRENNER COMES UPON THE SCENE 


We now turn, for a short time, to Frederick 
county, Maryland, and imagine ourselves there in the 
latter part of the eighteenth century, at least a genera- 
tion farther back than the time of which we have been 
thinking. Here, in a part of the country so close to 
Pennsylvania, the conditions as to the people, their 
occupations, their circumstances and their religion were 
naturally very much the same as those of the latter 
State, described in the preceding chapter. 

. Among the prosperous German farmers of Glade 

Valley, in the county named, was Philip Wine- 
brenner, whose farm of some two hundred acres was 
located about eight miles from the town of Frederick. 
It was on this farm, occupied by Philip Winebrenner 
and his wife, Eve C. Winebrenner, that John Wine- 
brenner, their third son, was born March 25, 1797. 
In 1810, when John was thirteen years of age, the 
family moved into a newly-finished and_ substantial 
stone farm house, and it was here that the one who 
is to become the outstanding human character of our 
historical study spent the days of his youth. His birth- 
place, a log house, soon disappeared; but this stone 
house, with a frame addition built later, still stands 
in an excellent state of preservation, after the lapse 
of a hundred and sixteen years. 


19 


20 History of the Churches of God 


John Winebrenner’s parents were members of the 
Glades Reformed Church, a country congregation 
whose meeting-house was about a mile from their 
home. His father was apparently satisfied with the 
formalism which characterized the religion of the 
Reformed Church at that time. His mother was more 
inclined to seek after the spiritual teachings of the 
word, and her influence had most to do with the serious — 
impressions made on his early life. 

The oft-repeated story of young men feeling the 
divine call to the Christian ministry and fighting against 
it for years is not a part of the biography of John 
Winebrenner. He had the ministry in mind from the 
days of his boyhood, and was constantly and eagerly 
looking forward to the time when he could enter the 
sacred calling. In due time he began to plan for his 
education, with the ministry in view. He received the 
prompt and hearty consent of his mother, but had to 
overcome the opposition of his father, whose consent 
and financial assistance he finally received. After his 
early years spent in a country school, which met in a 
small frame building on the opposite side of the road 
from the Glades Reformed church-house, he attended 
a school of higher grade at Frederick for a time. With 
this preparatory training he entered Dickinson College, 
at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, expecting to graduate in 
1818. But the college was closed from 1816 to 1821. In 
1817 he went to Philadelphia, where he received three 
years of theological training under the Rev. Samuel Hel- 
fenstein, during which time he made his home with the 
family of his instructor. College facilities at that time 


Winebrenner Comes Upon the Scene pA! 


were very meagre, and it was not until 1825 that the 
theological seminary of the Reformed Church was estab- 
lished at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, an institution which, 
after several removals, reached its present location at 
Lancaster. This explains why certain ministers of the 
Reformed Church added to their pastoral labors the 
work of training young men for the ministry. Dr. 
Samuel Helfenstein, it is said, prepared twenty-seven 
young men for the sacred calling. | 

And it was here, during the same period of his 
life, that Winebrenner received that which was of 
vastly greater value than his theological training. It 
was his personal experience of God’s regenerating 
grace, that great event known as the new birth, the 
event around which clustered all the subsequent testi- 
mony of his godly life. It has already been noted that 
he was of a devout turn of mind and heart from his 
youth up. The formalities of religion, as taught by 
the Reformed Church, had been attended to. He had 
been christened in infancy, and later catechised and 
confirmed. He had received the training of the church 
and of the different schools. All that his denomination 
required as a religious and secular preparation for the 
sacred office of the gospel ministry had been done or 
was being done. But all the while he felt that there 
was something still lacking in his life, something that 
was necessary to fully equip him for the great work 
before him. For this priceless possession he had long 
been yearning, and it became his, to the joy and satis- 
faction of his soul, on Easter Sunday, April 6, 1817. 
It was in the First Reformed Church on Race street, 


22 History of the Churches of God 


between Third and Fourth streets, under the preaching 
of his theological teacher, Dr. Samuel Helfenstein, that 
the Sun of Righteousness arose ‘“‘with healing in his 
wings,” and made that the happiest day of his life. 
Thus Winebrenner at last found the great blessing 
which he had felt the need of for several years, and 
which he had failed to find elsewhere. This was at the 
beginning of his theological course. That he found 
Christ as a personal Savior here indicates that this 
church and its pastor had much of the evangelistic 
spirit. That such was the case is further indicated 
by the fact that in 1828 they secured the evangelistic 
services of Rev. Charles G. Finney, the great revivalist. 

As the end of his theological course drew near 
Winebrenner received a call from the German 
Reformed charge at Harrisburg, which consisted of 
four churches: Harrisburg, Shoop’s and Wenrick’s 
in Dauphin county, and Salem, near Shiremanstown, in 
Cumberland county, at an annual salary of one thou- 
sand dollars. He agreed to accept the call after he 
had finished his course in theology, which he did. He 
was ordained by the General Synod of the German 
Reformed Church at Hagerstown, Maryland, Septem- 
ber 24, 1820, and began his pastorate in Harrisburg 
on Sunday, October 22, 1820. Harrisburg was then 
a country town with a population of less than four 
thousand, with neither railroad nor canal, a few 
places of business and four churches. 

Here, then, we are back again in eastern Pennsyl- 
vania, in the midst of the conditions set forth in the 
preceding chapter. But we have a new figure on the 


Winebrenner Comes Upon the Scene eo 


scene, a young minister twenty-three years of age, just 
beginning the work of his first pastorate, and whose 
career we are to follow with increasing interest. But 
let us pause, at the close of this chapter, to hear his 
own story of these interesting years. In an article 
prepared for a book called “The Testimony of a Hun- 
dred Witnesses,” compiled by Rev. J. F. Weishampel, 
and published by John F. Weishampel, Jr., in 1858, 
Winebrenner says: 

“T was born in Frederick county, Maryland, on the 
25th of March, 1797. My parents followed the occu- 
pation of farming, and both were members of the Ger- 
man Reformed Church. I received my English and 
classical education in the Glades school, in Frederick 
city, Dickinson College, and Philadelphia, under Dr. 
Samuel Helfenstein, of that city. I read and studied 
theology for three years. I was set apart, and solemnly 
ordained to the office of the Christian ministry, in the 
fall of 1820, at a Synodical meeting in Hagerstown, 
Maryland. From thence, I proceeded to Harrisburg, 
Pennsylvania, where I was settled as pastor of the Ger- 
man Reformed charge. 

“TI was, parentally and providentially, restrained 
from the paths of vice and immorality. And as my 
mother trained me, from youth up, in the fear and 
admonition of the Lord, and instructed me in the great 
principles and duties of religion, I was graciously 
brought to feel my obligations to God at an early age, 
and my mind was deeply exercised on the subject of 
my soul’s salvation. These convictions, however, would 
sometimes wear off, and then be renewed again. Hence, 


24 History of the Churches of God 


I continued sinning and repenting for a number of 
years, till in the winter of 1817, when deep and pungent 
convictions laid hold of my guilty soul. Then, like Job, 
‘T abhorred myself,—like Ephraim, ‘I bemoaned my- 
self, —with the prodigal, I said, ‘I will arise, and go 
to my father,—and with the publican I cried, “God, 
be merciful to me, a sinner.’ And after ‘chattering like 
the swallow,’ and ‘mourning as a dove,’ for three or 
four weary months, my poor woe-fraught soul found 
redemption in Emmanuel’s blood, even the forgiveness 
of sins. It was on Easter Sabbath, in the city of Phila- 
delphia, in the presence of a large congregation of 
worshippers, that Jesus, the “Sun of Righteousness’ 
arose, and shone upon my soul, ‘with healing in his 
wings. ‘Truly, that was the happiest day of my life! 
My darkness was turned into day, and my sorrow into 
joy. Jesus became the joy of my heart, and the centre 
of my affections. His people became lovely and 
precious in my sight. His word was my delight. In it 
I beheld new beauties and beatitudes. Sin, that dread- 
ful monster, became more odious and hateful to my 
soul. Zion’s welfare lay near my heart. My bowels 
yearned for the salvation of sinners. I was in travail 
for my friends and kindred. I felt constrained to join 
with ‘the Spirit and the bride,’ and say to all, Come, 
O, come to Jesus! 

“The work of the Christian ministry now became 
the uppermost desire of my heart. This desire, some- 
how, seemed a pent-up fire in my bones, from youth 
up. When but a boy, I longed, and sometimes attempted 
to preach to my comrades. In later years my mind 


Winebrenner Comes Upon the Scene 25 


became strongly impressed with the duty of preparing 
myself for the gospel ministry. I opened my mind to 
my parents, and requested them to have me educated 
with a view to that office. My mother readily con- 
sented, but my father strenuously opposed me. To 
divert my mind from this subject, and to induce me to 
abandon the idea of the ministry, he made various 
propositions. One was, to send me to Baltimore, and 
to have me become a merchant. Another was, to send 
me to Frederick city, to read law, or study medicine. 
Anything, he seemed to think, would be preferable to 
that of becoming a preacher of the gospel. However, 
none of these proposals had any charms for me; and 
the more I was opposed, the stronger my inclinations 
and desires grew for the Christian ministry. I felt, 
and sometimes said, nothing, I believe, in all the world, 
would give me permanent satisfaction and contentment, 
but preaching the gospel. My father at last yielded 
to my wishes,—sent me to school,—had me educated, 
and assisted me far beyond what I expected. Thus 
the Lord, ‘whose I am, and whom I serve,’ opened my 
way, and enabled me to prepare for my high vocation. 
And, after receiving a three years’ theological training 
and course of instruction, I was solemnly set apart to 
the holy office and work of the ministry, at the age of 
twenty-three years. 

“For five years I remained in connection with the 
German Reformed Church. During this period, some 
glorious revivals of religion took place both in town 
and country, and scores of precious souls were happily 
converted to God. These moral phenomena being new 


26 History of the Churches of God 


and strange things to the people, intense excitement 
and vehement opposition ensued. In consequence of 
these, I was brought to conceive more fully and clearly 
the errors and corruptions of the church, in her min- 
istry and membership. This led me to a closer and 
more careful study of the Scripture; and this, in turn, 
led to a change of views, in relation to the subjects of 
baptism, confirmation, feet-washing, church titles, gov-— 
ernment, discipline, etc. Under God, and through these 
marvelous changes and reformations, I was led to fall 
back upon the primitive and scriptural platform of 
establishing churches, administering ordinances, and 
teaching the way of the Lord more perfectly.” 


CHAPTER III. 


WINEBRENNER’S FIRST PASTORATE 


The closing paragraph of Winebrenner’s testi- 
mony, just quoted, succinctly mentions facts of suff- 
cient historical importance to command the next two 
chapters for our consideration. 

He began his pastorate of the Reformed churches 
named at a time of their worldliness and formality. 
This condition, as we have seen, was quite general. 
But it was also a time when many hearts were being 
touched by revival movements, led by earnest souls 
who were concerned for the spiritual welfare of the 
people. And when we recall the devout disposition of 
Winebrenner from his youth up, and his glorious con- 
version while he was a theological student in Philadel- 
phia, we are not surprised that in the prevailing con- 
flict between the forces of formality and spirituality 
he took his stand with the latter and soon became a 
leader among them. He was pre-eminently an evange- 
listic preacher, and God honored his preaching with 
“glorious revivals of religion.” But it also aroused, 
as he says, “vehement opposition” on the part of those 
who were unwilling to yield to his pleas for a genuine 
Christian life. This was the primary and fundamental 
cause of the cleavage which, about five years after he 
assumed the responsibilities of this pastorate, resulted 
in his separation from the German Reformed denomi- 


nation. 
ay, 


28 History of the Churches of God 


The difficulties between the pastor and a part of 
his church membership and the futile efforts to adjust 
matters, which extended over much of this five-year 
period, need not be considered at length. Minor and 
incidental factors naturally entered in from time to 
time. But that the vital cause was the one mentioned 
is evident from the official complaints which his oppo- 
nents lodged against him. They complained that he 
sometimes attended the Methodist meetings, occasion- 
ally preached for them, and even advised his people to 
attend there when they had no services of their own; 
that he held too many prayer-meetings or anxious 
meetings and conducted them with too much noise and 
confusion; inviting those who wanted to be prayed for 
to come forward; allowing persons to groan during 
prayer and others to respond with amens; also that he 
continued these meetings till too late an hour of the 
night. And as a condition of compromise they pro- 
posed that “he must preach for them only, and not for 
other congregations; and hereafter not invite so-called 
unordained ministers to preach in his pulpit; and not 
hold more than one prayer-meeting a week, nor keep 
it up later than nine o’clock at night.” Winebrenner’s 
answer was “I will not consent to these arrangements, 
for I am a free man, preach a free gospel, and I will 
go where the Lord calls me to go.” 

The Sunday following this meeting with his 
vestry, which was in the Spring of 1823, he found the 
church-house in Harrisburg locked against him, and, 
with the part of the membership which stood with him, 
estimated at about one-half, went to the bank of the 


Winebrenner’s First Pastorate 29 


Susquehanna river, two blocks distant, and held their 
service. He received similar treatment at other 
churches on his charge. “This state of things,” says 
Winebrenner, “lasted for about five years, [till 1825] 
and then resulted in a separation from the German 
Reformed Church.” He speaks of this separation as 
his withdrawal. The Synod of 1825 was the last he 
attended. But it was not until three years later that 
official action was taken by the Synod to the effect that 
“he ought not to be any longer considered a member 
of this body.” 

No doubt Winebrenner sincerely felt, as he says, 
that “the members of these congregations or churches 
were unconverted, with few exceptions, and many 
- grossly ignorant of the right ways of the Lord.” With 
this sense of pastoral responsibility he preached 
“experimental religion,’ using as his favorite text, “Ye 
must be born again.” And those who accepted the 
truth and entered into the joys of spiritual fellowship 
with their Lord, naturally followed their pastor when 
the crisis came and he severed his denominational ties. 
They felt that they could not be unequally yoked 
together with those who rejected the offers of mercy 
and refused to enter into the blessings of regenerating 
grace. 

While Winebrenner was intensely evangelistic, 
with the enthusiasm of a young convert of the cross, he 
was in no sense a mystic. He was more than a theorist. 
He was practical as well as pious. One of the first acts 
of his pastorate was to organize a Sunday-school for 
the Salem Reformed Church. This was one of the 


30 History of the Churches of God 


new features being introduced into the work of the 
Reformed churches at that time, parochial schools. 
having been the principal means for the religious train- 
ing of their children. 

Feeling that in order to do aggressive work a 
better building was needed than the log house in which 
the church had been worshipping, he started a move- 
ment toward that end. As a result, in less than eight 
months after he assuméd the pastorate the corner-stone 
was laid, and the new house of worship was dedicated 
August 4, 1822. This building, after more than a 
hundred years, is still in splendid condition, is used 
regularly by the Salem Reformed congregation, and is 
one of the prominent church-houses of Harrisburg. 

This pastorate was of itself a heavy responsibility 
for a young man just out of school. The building 
program which he launched and successfully carried 
out, a very ambitious one for that time, added greatly 
to his responsibilities and labors. He also married and 
established his own home, Charlotte M. Reutter, of 
Harrisburg, becoming his wife on October 10, 1822. 
And finally, he ended that period of his life’s work by 
withdrawing from the denomination in which he had 
been born, raised and educated, and by which he had 
been inducted into the Christian ministry. And all 
this in the short space of five years—from 1820 to 1825, 
and while he was passing through that period of his 
early manhood between the ages of twenty-three and 
twenty-eight. 

His deepest desire was to bring his brethren of 
the Reformed Church to an experimental knowledge of 





SALEM REFORMED CHURCH. 


* Pet k cea 


fee 


eee is 


a 
ron 





Winebrenner’s First Pastorate 31 


personal salvation. He had no desire to leave his 
denomination, and did so only when circumstances 
forced him to that decision. And when the crisis came 
it involved a sacrifice not easy to realize. It meant 
the turning away not only from the Church of his 
childhood and youth, but also from the faith of those 
nearest to him by the ties of blood. Nothing but the 
voice of God could justify such a step, and it was that 
Voice which Winebrenner verily believed he was hear- 
ing and heeding. From the time of his genuine con- 
version, eight years before, he had exercised an abiding 
confidence in the Lord, and by Him he was sustained. 
This enabled him to pass through these most trying 
experiences of his life with Christian fortitude. In 
_ evidence of this there has come down to us a precious 
glimpse into his inner life at this time, a brief medita- 
tion written on March 25, 1825, his twenty-eighth 
birthday, in which he says: 

“Today I am twenty-eight years old. Hitherto a 
kind and gracious providence has brought me. And 
by the grace of God I am what Iam. I have abundant 
cause to say, that, in very deed the Lord has been good 
to me; infinitely more so, than I have in any wise 
deserved, or could have expected, considering how often 
I have sinned against him and how little I have glori- 
fied him. But, I desire to be unfeignedly thankful to 
God for the past, and to trust him for the future. If 
my life should be spared 28 years more, | do most 
devoutly hope and pray that I shall have done 28 
times as much for God as I have hitherto done or 
accomplished for him. My ardent desire is to live to 


32 History of the Churches of God 


the praise of God, and to the good of my fellow 
creatures, whilst I have my abode in this world. And, 
whether my years be many or few in this world, I wish 
to spend them all in the ways and service of my Maker. 
It is now about eight years since I left the Egypt of 
this world, and entered upon the spiritual journey 
towards the Canaan in the skies. And though, like the 
Israelites of old, I have had to drink the bitter waters | 
of Marah, like them also I have found the sweet and 
delightful waters of Elim.” 


CAPER LY. 


OUR WORK ESTABLISHED AND ORGANIZED 


The “glorious revivals of religion” which took 
place under Winebrenner’s pastorate in the German 
Reformed Church were not interrupted but rather stim- 
ulated by his separation from that denomination. He 
was then freer than he had ever been before. He could 
worship God according to the dictates of his own con- 
science. He could preach the gospel as enlightened 
and prompted by the Holy Spirit and none could 
hinder. And those who were like-minded, especially 
those who had been converted under his ministry stood 
by him. They continued their work with ever-increas- 
ing zeal and activity. They held religious services and 
evangelistic meetings in private houses, in_ school- 
houses, in barns, and in “God’s first temples’”—the 
groves. The revival fires thus kindled in Harrisburg 
spread in nearly all directions, and in towns and coun- 
try-sides gracious works of God’s redeeming grace 
were witnessed, resulting in the salvation of many 
precious souls, the number reaching far into the hun- 
dreds. And among these converts and others who 
identified themselves with this evangelistic movement 
some were found capable and worthy to be co-laborers 
with Winebrenner in the gospel ministry. 

Very soon the need of some kind of organization 


33 


34 History of the Churches of God 


was naturally felt by these converts and their leaders. 
There were questions to be decided in connection with 
their spiritual interests. And if their work was to be 
continued and made permanent there were temporal 
matters to be looked after, such as the support of the 
ministry, the building of meeting-houses and many 
other things involving the transaction of business. ‘The 
natural and sensible conclusion which they reached was 
that local churches should be organized in their 
respective communities. 

The first church was organized in Harrisburg. 
The exact date is somewhat in doubt. But its house of 
worship, called Union Bethel, on Mulberry street, 
where the Harrisburg Hospital now stands, was built 
in 1827, and the church was evidently organized prior 
to that time, but not earlier than 1825. ‘This important 
step taken by the brethren in Harrisburg was naturally 
followed by the organization of churches in other 
localities. 

This organizing of churches involved a great deal 
more, at that time, than appears at first thought. Wine- 
brenner and his co-laborers were not organizing 
Reformed churches, nor local churches for any other 
denomination; had they been doing so, it would have 
been a simple matter—the mere carrying out of a 
familiar formality. Instead, every step taken was on 
new ground, and without any previously conceived plan. 
They met each problem as it arose, trusting in God for 
divine wisdom to solve it. The situation, says Wine- 
brenner, “led me to a closer and more careful study of 
the Scriptures; and this, in turn, led to a change of 


Our Work Established and Organized ate. 


views in relation to the subjects of baptism, confirma- 
tion, feet-washing, church titles, government, discipline, 
etc. Under God, and through these marvelous changes 
and reformations, I was led to fall back upon the primi- 
tive and scriptural platform of establishing churches, 
administering ordinances, and teaching the way of the 
Lord more perfectly.” 

The restoration of primitive Christianity was the 
watchword of Winebrenner and his followers, and it 
was on this primitive and scriptural basis that all ques- 
tions, after a careful study of the word of God, were 
decided. For example, these churches that were being 
organized must have a name. What should it be? The 
criterion adopted was that Bible institutions should be 
~ called by Bible names, and that Bible names should not 
be applied to human institutions. They believed that the 
church was unquestionably a Bible institution, and to 
the Bible they turned for its name. There they found, 
again and again, the title, “church of God,” and no 
other church name, and that settled the first and one of 
the most important questions. 

These churches must also have officers. Again 
they turned to the New Testament, and found there 
that the officers of the church are elders and deacons, 
and these were elected in the organization of the 
churches. Winebrenner made a careful study of this 
subject, and in 1829 published a small book on local 
church polity, in which he gave his views of the church, 
its officers, their respective duties, and the proper man- 
ner of governing the church and exercising church dis- 
cipline. He declared the presbyterial system, or gov- 


36 History of the Churches of God 


ernment by presbyters, or elders to be the scriptural 
form. 

The interpretation given to the Scriptures with 
reference to the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, 
by Winebrenner and his followers, was substantially 
the same as that of other religious bodies of the 
Arminian faith. But the disputed subject of the 
ordinances of the church received careful and pro-_ 
longed consideration. Then, as now, the Lord’s 
Supper, or the Communion occasioned no dispute. As 
to baptism, Winebrenner had been brought up under 
the teaching and practice of sprinkling, and it was not 
until 1830 that he reached the positive and final con- 
clusion that the only scriptural baptism is the immersion 
of believers. No sooner had he reached this conclusion 
than he proceeded to put it into practice. On a Sunday 
afternoon in the summer of that year he preached a 
sermon on baptism in the Union Bethel on Mulberry 
street, Harrisburg, after which he led his congregation 
to the Susquehanna river near by, where he was bap- 
tized by a close friend, Rev. Jacob Erb (later Bishop 
Erb) of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. 

The washing of the saints’ feet as a church ordi- 
nance was another subject which claimed the earnest 
attention of Winebrenner and his followers. This 
rite had been practiced for many years in this part of 
the country by certain religious bodies, including the 
German Baptists and the Mennonites. The United 
Brethren also practiced this ordinance during the early 
years of their history. Winebrenner was present on 
different occasions when this ordinance was observed 


Our Work Established and Organized 37 


by the United Brethren, but when invited to participate 
he excused himself on the ground that he had not yet 
come to a definite conclusion. Finally his study of the 
word led him to accept this truth and put it into prac- 
tice. This was about the time that he came to a fixed 
opinion on baptism, or a little earlier, probably in 1829. 
From that time on he regarded feet-washing as one 
of the three monumental and symbolical ordinances 
which Christ set in the church, and ever after preached 
this doctrine with force and clearness. 

It should be remembered that the momentous expe- 
riences through which Winebrenner passed during 
these five eventful years (from 1825 to 1830) were 
without previous plans. He went out from the German 
~ Reformed Church through force of circumstances, 
feeling that he must continue his great work of evan- 
gelism and soul-winning. At that time he had no 
thought of organizing churches. This question, as well 
as those of the church name, officers, doctrines and 
ordinances and all other matters were taken up and 
settled when forced upon him by the course of events. 
He had no human program to carry out. But we are 
glad to believe that he had what is infinitely better—the 
providential guidance of the Most High. 

Everything which Winebrenner and his people 
taught and practiced could be found in other religious 
bodies—but not in the same combination. There were 
bodies which agreed with Winebrenner’s views on the 
ordinance of baptism, but not as to the ordinance of 
the washing of the saints’ feet. This was true of the 
Baptists. It was also true of the Disciples, who had 


38 History of the Churches of God 


already presented the unsectarian conception of the 
church. On the other hand, denominations which 
observed the ordinance of feet-washing were not in 
accord with Winebrenner’s views on baptism, and so 
on. Even the Free Will Baptists, who were more 
nearly in harmony with his views than any other body 
of people, had not accepted what Winebrenner believed. 
to be the divine name—“the church of God.” Hence, 
while our great human leader was not the discoverer 
of any new doctrine or practice, he is to be credited 
with the selection of a more perfect body of scriptural 
truth for doctrinal teaching and practice than any other 
extant, either then, or now. He and his people could 
have found in other Churches everything which they 
believed and desired to teach and practice. But they 
could not find these things in any one church. Neither 
could they affiliate with several different Churches. 
This was the situation which marked the beginning of 
a new movement and made necessary the organization 
of churches according to the New Testament plan— 
churches for the teaching and practice of “the truth, 
the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” 


Winebrenner’s views on church polity were, as 
might have been expected, a gradual growth. When 
circumstances seemed to demand the organization of 
local churches he gave to the subject of their govern- 
ment his most earnest thought. His consideration at 
that time does not seem to have gone beyond the local 
church. No occasion had yet arisen to require further 
attention. And the plan of government set forth in 


Our Work Established and Organized 39 


the New Testament, which he had taken as his “rule of 
faith and practice,’’ was limited to local churches. 

But since the association of these converts in 
church organizations in their respective communities 
proved wise and helpful, it soon occurred to them that 
a wider form of association of these churches by which 
their representatives might co-operate in the propaga- 
tion of their common faith and in the carrying out of 
their common plans and purposes would also be profit- 
able. Accordingly a meeting was called for this pur- 
pose. Concerning those who composed it and the work 
done, Winebrenner has this to say in his “History of 
Religious Denominations”’: 

“From among the young converts, in these newly 
planted churches, it pleased God to raise up several 
able men, to take upon them the solemn and responsible 
office of the gospel ministry. These ministering 
brethren, with a few other great and good men with 
similar views and kindred spirits, labored and co- 
operated with each other for a few years without any 
regular system of co-operation; but, finally, they agreed 
to hold a meeting for the purpose of adopting a regular 
system of co-operation. 

“In October, 1830, they met together for this 
purpose, pursuant to public notice, in the Union Bethel 
at Harrisburg, and organized the meeting by appoint- 
ing John Winebrenner, of Harrisburg, Speaker; and 
John Elliott, of Lancaster, Clerk.” 

The forenoon was spent in devotional services. In 
the afternoon Winebrenner preached a sermon from 
Acts v. 38, 39. The sermon dealt with “the conversion 


40 History of the Churches of God 


of sinners, the formation of churches, and the supply 
of the destitute with the gospel ministry.” The speaker 
declared that the discharge of the third duty mentioned 
—‘the supply of the destitute with the gospel ministry” 
was the principal reason why “‘we purpose to unite on 
the best and most efficient plan of co-operation.” Then 
followed the adoption of a brief statement in keeping . 
with the line of thought followed in the sermon. 

“Thus originated,” says Winebrenner, “the Church 
of God, properly and distinctively so called, in the 
United States of America; and thus, also, originated 
the first Eldership.” 


CHAPTER V. 


CHURCH EXTENSION 


At the time of the organization of the first Elder- 
ship, in 1830, local churches had been established at a 
number of points in Dauphin, Lancaster and Cumber- 
land counties. Such organizations were effected at 
Middletown, in 1827; at Lisburn and Mechanicsburg, 
in 1828; at Linglestown, in 1829; and an independent 
church at Lancaster came into fellowship about 1827. 

The years immediately following the organization 
of the first Eldership witnessed similar results in the 
formation of local churches in various localities in 
eastern Pennsylvania. A church was organized at 
Fredericksburg, Lebanon county, in 1830; at Mt. Joy, 
Lancaster county, in 1831; at Landisburg, Perry 
county, in 1832; at Churchtown, Cumberland county, 
in 1833; at Camp Hill, Cumberland county, in 1833; 
at Newburg, Cumberland county, in 1834; the same 
year an independent church at Shippensburg came into 
the fellowship of the Eldership after the manner of 
the church at Lancaster; the church at Elizabethtown 
was organized about 1836. Work had also been started 
about this time in Maryland, in Carroll and Washington 
counties. 

These churches were the visible and organized 
results of the great and extensive evangelistic work 
carried on by Winebrenner and his co-laborers during 


41 


42 History of the Churches of God 


the first decade after his separation from the German 
Reformed Church. The list of his fellow laborers, 
our first ministers of the gospel, is a list of self-sacri- 
ficing and devoted servants of Christ whose names have 
been perpetuated with increasing affection to the 
present time. Andrew Miller, David Maxwell, James 
Mackey, William McFadden and Jacob Keller are the 
best known of those who began their work during this 
period and made for themselves a permanent place in 
our history. Winebrenner was their leader in every 
sense of the word and gave himself unreservedly to 
the great work in which they were engaged. Soul- 
winning, which should always be the master passion 
of the Christian ministry, was the daily desire of their 
souls and the constant object of their efforts. To this 
end they utilized every opportunity and facility. They 
gladly preached the gospel of salvation to the few 
persons who could find room to meet under a neighbor’s 
roof. They availed themselves of larger meeting- 
places whenever and wherever they could be found. 
And in the summer time they went out into the great 
open spaces to feed the multitudes with the bread of 
heaven. ‘These camp-meetings were perhaps the most 
effective of all the agencies employed during those 
early years to reach the unsaved and acquaint the people 
with our teachings and practices. The number of con- 
versions ran into the scores and hundreds. Wine- 

brenner was at his best as a revivalist, especially in the 
midst of a successful camp-meeting, and under his 
clear and impressive preaching there were many 
remarkable manifestations of divine power. 


Church Extension 43 


By this time the work had extended beyond the 
Allegheny mountains and the confines of the Keystone 
State. Its extension naturally followed the line of 
emigration. Many of our people had moved from 
eastern Pennsylvania to Ohio. While they were seek- 
ing to better their condition in a material way, they 
were not unmindful of their spiritual interests. 
Requests came back east for the preaching of the 
gospel and, so far as possible, these Macedonian calls 
were answered. Jacob Keller and Thomas Hickernell 
were the pioneer missionaries to Ohio and they were 
assisted by other ministers less widely known. Camp- 
meetings were the first evangelistic agencies and they 
were attended with an encouraging measure of success. 
From 1835 to 1840 meetings of this kind were held 
in Wayne, Holmes, Stark, Richland, Tuscarawas, Allen 
and Mercer counties, and in due time churches were 
organized in these and other counties. 

The territory of western Pennsylvania, lying 
between the original field of operation in eastern Penn- 
sylvania and the newer field in Ohio, naturally received 
attention. Thomas Hickernell and Jacob Keller 
labored here for a short time in the early stages of the 
work, but John Hickernell, a younger brother of 
Thomas Hickernell, was the real pioneer in western 
Pennsylvania, where he spent nearly all of his long and 
useful life. A very hopeful and substantial beginning 
was made in Allegheny, Beaver, Westmoreland, Butler 
and Venango counties during the closing years of the 
fourth decade of the nineteenth century. In 1839 
churches were organized at Bethany, Westmoreland 


44 History of the Churches of God 


county; Slippery Rock, Beaver county; Old Harmony, 
Butler county; and one in Venango county. The first 
mentioned is now the church at Alverton; the last 
mentioned is the church at Barkeyville. In the same 
year John Hickernell began preaching in Pittsburgh, 
which became the central point of all missionary opera- 
tions in the western part of the State. 

During the decade from 1840 to 1850 the home 
base of operations was extended to Bedford, Blair, 
Fulton, Huntingdon and Schuylkill counties in Penn- 
sylvania and to Frederick county, Maryland. West of 
the Allegheny mountains Fayette, Cambria, Indiana 
and Greene counties were the new additions to the 
field of missionary operations. And in Ohio appoint- 
ments were opened in Marion, Columbiana, Miami 
and Summit counties. Work was also started, with 
encouraging prospects, in the western part of Virginia. 

But the activities were not confined to these 
established fields. Three other states, which have ever 
since been prominent in the work of the Churches of 
God, were entered by our missionaries during these 
years. In 1842 the Ohio Eldership extended its work 
over into Adams county, Indiana, and by 1850 the work 
had spread into Huntingdon, Allen, Wells, Noble, 
Whitley, DeKalb and LaGrange counties. Here, as in 
Ohio, Thomas Hickernell was the leading missionary. 
In 1847 George U. Harn, a native of Maryland and one 
of the ablest of our early ministers made an extended 
missionary journey into Illinois and organized a church 
at Mt. Carroll in 1848. Others had been engaged in 
preaching the gospel in Illinois and appointments had 


Church E;xtension 45 


been opened in LaSalle, Ogle, JoDaviess and other 
counties. Harn went on into Iowa, where missionary 
work had already been started by Emanuel Logue, sent 
out by the Eldership in eastern Pennsylvania. By 
1847 Logue had established a church near Trenton, in 
Henry county, and the following year organized a 
church at North Bend, Johnston county. At these and 
other points the missionary efforts were attended with 
an encouraging measure of success. 

Almost without exception the work at the various 
points in western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois 
and Iowa was started with a nucleus of Church of God 
people who had emigrated westwardly from eastern 
Pennsylvania and Maryland. Ina few cases the 
preachers accompanied these families, in other cases 
they followed them, either on their own responsibility or 
by official appointment as missionaries. Under these 
circumstances the preachers were among former 
acquaintances and friends, yea more, their brethren in 
the Lord, who were willing to stand by them in pro- 
claiming the precious truths of their common faith to 
others. But their opposition from without was often 
of the strongest kind, and many times they suffered 
the severest persecution. To the already mentioned 
heroes of the faith of these early years we may well 
add the names of Joseph A. Dobson, J. M. Klein and 
Joseph Glenn, in West Pennsylvania; and Daniel 
Wertz in Virginia. 

The hardships endured. and the trials suffered by 
these early missionaries of the cross make a record 
which can be but dimly visioned by those of us who 


46 History of the Churches of God 


now live at so great a distance from their times and 
under circumstances vastly more favorable. Much of 
the country over which they traveled was wilderness 
land. Malaria had not yet been conquered by sanitary 
measures. Means of transportation were crude and 
primitive. It was a time when the minister’s usual 
means of travel was on horseback with the saddlebags 
as his equipment. The journey which modern facili- 
ties for travel have turned into a pleasure trip was then 
a tiresome experience of exposure and danger. But 
none of these things turned them aside, neither counted 
they their lives dear unto themselves; for they were 
determined to be faithful to the ministry which they 
had “received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel 
of the grace of God.” 

As in eastern Pennsylvania, so elsewhere, the 
first step was always missionary evangelism. ‘Then, as 
soon as it was thought prudent, churches were organ- 
ized, and as soon as they were financially able they 
erected modest meeting-houses. ‘The plan for co-oper- 
ative action by these churches in a given territory was 
also carried out, resulting in the organization of the 
Ohio Eldership, in 1836; the West Pennsylvania Elder- 
ship, in 1844; the Indiana Eldership, in 1846; and the 
Iowa Eldership, in 1848. 

Another event of much _ historical importance 
occurred during this period. It was the organization of 
the General Eldership, in 1845. The annual Elderships 
had been found quite useful for co-operative effort and 
the doing of things in which all of the churches had a 
common interest but which no church could do alone. 


Church Extension 47 


This naturally suggested the wisdom of having a Gen- 
eral Eldership through which the annual Elderships 
could co-operate in all matters of a general character. 
With this end in view Winebrenner visited the Ohio 
and West Pennsylvania Elderships in 1844, explained 
the purpose and advantages of the proposed general 
body and urged the election of delegates. As the 
annual Elderships were composed of the ministers and 
lay delegates from the local churches, so the proposed 
General Eldership, in keeping with the same principle 
of representation, should be composed of a certain 
number of ministerial and lay delegates elected by the 
annual Elderships, the number to be determined on the 
basis of the number of ministers in each Eldership. 
At first each Eldership was given one ministerial and 
one lay delegate for every ten ministers. In 1902 the 
basis of representation was changed to one ministerial 
and one lay delegate “for every eight ordained pastors, 
and for every fraction above three-eighths.” In 1921 
the basis of representation was changed to one minis- 
terial and one lay delegate “for every eight hundred 
members and major fraction thereof.” It was at this 
time that women were made eligible as lay delegates to 
the General Eldership. From 1845 to 1905 the General 
Eldership met triennially ; since 1905, quadrennially. 
Twenty-two delegates were appointed to the first 
General Eldership—twelve by East Pennsylvania, six 
by Ohio and four by West Pennsylvania. Thirteen of 
these—six from East Pennsylvania, three from Ohio 
and four from West Pennsylvania came together at 
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, May 26, 1845. Winebrenner 


48 History of the Churches of God 


was elected Speaker. A Constitution was adopted, 
containing the necessary rules of co-operation and 
providing for the management of all general interests. 
Resolutions were also adopted expressing the position 
of the body on public questions. 

This work of evangelism and church organization, 
which had its beginning in Harrisburg in 1825, had 
now been going on for a quarter of a century, and we 
naturally pause to ask, with what results? It was at the 
close of this period (in 1849) that Winebrenner issued 
the second edition of his “History of Religious Denom- 
inations,” in which we find the most accurate statistics 
available. He gives the following figures: 

East Pennsylvania, number of licensed and 
ordained ministers, 56; organized churches, 75; preach- 
ing places, about 130; probable number of church 
members, 6,500. 

Ohio—ministers, 20; organized churches, 40; 
other appointments, 90; church members, 3,000. 

West Pennsylvania—ministers, 16; churches, 30; 
regular preaching places, 60; church members, 2,000. 

Indiana—ministers, 4; organized churches, 10; 
other appointments, 25; church members, 300. 

All of these statistics, except the number of min- 
isters, are given by Winebrenner as the “probable” 
number. He also estimates the scattered members at 
two hundred or more, and then gives the following 
recapitulation : 

Aggregate number of ministers, 96; organized 


churches, 155; preaching places, 305; church members, 
12,000. 


CHAPTER VI. 


HISTORICAL CRISES 


The second quarter of our century’s history (1850 
to 1875) has three outstanding features. 

The first may be called the final trials and triumphs 
of Winebrenner’s life. At the beginning of this period 
he had already lived fifty-three years, thirty of which 
had been spent in the active ministry. These years 
had been attended with severe trials and many hard- 
ships. They had been years of indefatigable labors. 
And his labors and those of his co-workers had been 
crowned with gracious triumphs. Without any pre- 
~ vious expectation he had been used of God in establish- 
ing a religious body whose work, in a quarter of a 
century, had been permanently established in Pennsyl- 
vania, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and 
Iowa and had branched out into a number of other 
contiguous states. He had been instrumental in organ- 
izing several E,lderships and a General Eldership. He 
had seen several hundred churches and preaching 
places established. Scores of church-houses had been 
built, many of which he was privileged to dedicate. He 
had, as we now know, ten years more of life to live. 
During the first few years of this decade his activities 
continued as usual, with such special efforts as the 
expanding character of the work required. He and 
Harn made a missionary journey to the West during 
the summer of 1850, which required over four months 

49 


50 History of the Churches of God 


time and brought much inspiration and encouragement 
to the brotherhood in western Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois and Iowa. 

Winebrenner was establishing churches after the 
New Testament pattern. They were the same as the 
church which the Master had “purchased with his own 
blood,” and for which he, as a follower of the Master, | 
was also giving his life—by wearing it out in service. 
Nothing was dearer to Winebrenner’s heart than the 
church. This was true of all the churches which had 
been established, but we may well suppose that the 
original church held a special place in his affections. 
And it is easy to imagine the enthusiasm and joy with 
which he and the church, in 1854, took the forward 
step of changing to a more desirable location by selling 
the property on Mulberry street and buying and build- 
ing on Fourth street. This was the most costly and 
elaborate house of worship which the Church of God 
had so far erected, and after more than three score and 
ten years it still serves its purpose and at the same time 
memorializes the consecrated labors and self-sacrificing 
devotion by which it was made possible. It was 
evidently intended to have more than a local influence 
among our people. The house was dedicated November 
4, 1855. This was “a high day in Zion,” and gave 
promise of greater accomplishments in Harrisburg 
than ever before. 

Little was it thought that during the next few 
years this “mother church,” which, in keeping with the 
change of location was thereafter called the Fourth 
Street Church, and more recently the First Church, 


1 





First Cuurcu, HARRISBURG. 





Historical Crises 51 


would pass through experiences alike distressing to the 
individuals connected with it and detrimental to the 
cause with which they were indentified, but such was 
the case. The principals in this unfortunate contro- 
versy were John Winebrenner and James Colder. The 
latter had gone to China as a Methodist missionary in 
1851. But, having changed his views, he left the 
Methodist Church and returned to the United States, 
in 1854, and became a minister of the Church of God. 
The difficulty was schismatic in its effects upon the 
Fourth Street Church. The rightful authority in the 
appointing of a pastor of this church was the technical 
question at issue, hence, in an ecclesiastical sense the 
whole East Pennsylvania Eldership was involved. And 
the situation was made still worse by the family 
element which unavoidably entered into it, for Colder 
was Winebrenner’s son-in-law. The long, tedious and 
distressing course of events in connection with this 
matter need not be recounted here. It is a page of our 
history which it is better to forget than to remember. 
It is sufficient to say that the question was carried 
through the courts, and finally, in 1862, the Supreme 
Court of Pennsylvania handed down a decision sus- 
taining the authority of the Eldership in the appointing 
of pastors. This was a triumphant vindication for the 
followers of Winebrenner. It put them in possession 
of their church property on Fourth street, of which they 
had been illegally deprived for nearly four years. 
Spiritual and financial prosperity again attended their 
labors, so that this church has long since become one 
of the strongest in the General Eldership. 


52 History of the Churches of God 


But Winebrenner did not live to see the successful 
outcome of this unfortunate and most regrettable 
experience of his career. After a period of failing 
health which extended over more than a year, he 
peacefully entered into rest, September 12, 1860. He 
was conscious until the end, and this was his final 
message to the ministry : 


“In the event I depart, preach Jesus. Oh, the 
glory of preaching Jesus! I have never seen the neces- 
sity of preaching Jesus in the days of health as I have 
seen it since I have been sick. Preach Jesus in the 
days of your health. Tell the brethren to stick 
together !” 


Owing to the litigation involving the bethel of the 
only church of God then in Harrisburg, the funeral 
services were held in the Methodist house of worship 
on Locust street. E. H. Thomas preached the funeral 
sermon, using as a text Hebrews i1:4. He was 
assisted by James Mackey, A. X. Shoemaker and 
Joseph Ross. The body was laid to rest in the Har- 
risburg Cemetery. 


The second outstanding feature of this historical 
period was the Civil War, from 1861 to 1865. It was 
during these years that this nation, “conceived in liberty, 
and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created 
equal,” was “engaged in a great civil war, testing 
whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so 
dedicated, can long endure.” ‘The influence of the war 
on church work, as well as on every other kind of 
human activity, was far-reaching. So were the events 


Historical Crises 53 


leading up to the war, chief of which was the agitation 
of the subject of slavery. And the aftermaths of the 
war, as always, had their effects on the cause of right- 
eousness. Hundreds of our laymen and many of our 
preachers entered the military service of their country, 
thus depleting, to that extent, the strength of the 
churches and the ministry. The courageous Harn, who 
had fought so many battles for the truth, was the most 
prominent of those who made the supreme sacrifice in 
the war. The life of the Union was at stake, and other 
things, for the time, were almost forgotten. The 
secular overshadowed the spiritual and the churches 
suffered the consequences. 

The third outstanding feature of this period of 
our history was its remarkable manifestation of mis- 
sionary zeal. Church work was continued and enlarged 
in the states where it had already been established. 
Camp-meetings were held east and west, as many as 
twenty to thirty in one season. The winter revivals 
were prosecuted with deep earnestness and great faith. 
These were the years when the terms “big meeting” and 
“protracted meeting’ were as appropriate as they were 
familiar. Scores of church-houses were built. Sunday- 
school conventions were held to strengthen and advance 
that important auxiliary of the churches. And the 
self-sacrificing devotion of our pioneer ministers urged 
them beyond the older established fields into new terri- 
tory, including Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Texas and 
Arkansas. In addition to the ministers already named 
as having attained prominence during this period, the 
following are added: B. Ober, E. Marple, Wm. Vance, 


54 History of the Churches of God 


A. Megrew, EF. H. Thomas, J. F. Weishampel, I. E. 
Boyer, J. A. Plowman, and L. B. Hartman. 

The great activity of these years was the more 
remarkable in view of the two features previously 
mentioned in this chapter, both of which were of a 
discouraging and hindering character. The neglect of 
church work during the war was largely retrieved by a 
renewed and increased diligence during the years imme- 
diately following. 

It may be said that some of the missionary zeal of 
this period, as well as that of other periods of our 
history, was not manifested according to wisdom, Hun- 
dreds of preaching appointments were opened which 
were sooner or later abandoned, and this was true in 
many places where churches were organized and houses 
of worship built. But the efforts put forth were praise- 
worthy nevertheless. The saving of souls and the 
establishing of churches were the supreme objects of 
these self-sacrificing pioneers. Their invariable method 
was to follow the tide of emigration. Their object was 
right and their method was wise. But as much could 
not always be said of the families of the Church in their 
plans of emigration. The family that moved hundreds 
of miles away from any other point of contact with 
those of their own faith could hardly expect to be 
followed by a missionary. Yet our brethren of the 
early years hesitated to make any exception when they 
heard a distant call. This extraordinary zeal and 
optimism must explain some steps taken during these 
years which failed to produce the hoped-for results. 
Otherwise it is hard to understand, for example, why 


Historical Crises 55 


missionaries were sent from Pennsylvania to Texas, in 
1855, not only because of the great distance, but also 
because of the slavery agitation. At that time this 
agitation had become so acute in the South that any 
one coming from the North, and especially to repre- 
sent a Church that was known to be opposed to slavery 
was met with a suspicion that it was practically impos- 
sible to overcome, as the unfortunate history of the 
Texas mission and its lack of substantial results show. 
The Chicago Mission also belongs to this period and is 
another case in point. Its beginning, in 1864, was one 
of the most ambitious missionary undertakings upon 
which the Church had entered. It had A. X. Shoe- 
maker, one of our ablest ministers, at its head. But its 
failure, after a decade of strenuous and heroic efforts, 
seems to furnish the explanation that it was a greater 
undertaking than our people, at that time, were capable 
of carrying through. 

But, somehow, we cannot look upon these failures 
or speak of them in a spirit of criticism. As we read 
the record we think less and less of the failures and 
more and more of the heroic courage and the deter- 
mined efforts, in spite of formidable obstacles, to 
glorify God in the upbuilding of His church. And the 
brethren of that time were not lacking in courage. They 
did not allow failures here and there to make them 
faint-hearted. They kept constantly at their task. As 
evidence of this, from 1870 to 1875, the period of the 
Chicago failure, seventy-seven houses of worship were 
dedicated, seven of them in Illinois, besides two rededi- 
cations in Illinois and eight elsewhere. 


CHAPTER VII. 


WINEBRENNER—A CHARACTER SKETCH 


It is easy to agree with Emerson that “an institu- 
tion is the lengthened shadow of one man.” And now, 
that we are about to leave the man to follow the length- 
ened shadow, it seems fitting that a few things, in 
addition to the facts already given, should be recorded 
concerning the one who, by divine grace, became the 
leader of an important religious movement. 

Winebrenner’s personal appearance is briefly but 
clearly described by one of his intimate contemporaries, 
Dr. George Ross, who says: 

“He was tall and slender, about six feet high, and 
very erect, whether walking or standing, or in the 
pulpit; with high forehead, and rather long, thin face, 
bluish eyes inclining to gray. His hair was smooth 
and of light chestnut color when younger, but later in 
life it was slightly mixed with gray, and which he wore 
rather long. Dignity and solemnity were prominent 
features in his countenance; and it was impossible to 
be in his company without feeling that you were in the 
presence of a great and good man. Yet there was little 
stiffness in his manner, so that a little child could 
readily approach him with confidence.” 

The domestic relations of Winebrenner are natur- 
ally of interest to the student of history. His first 
marriage was to Charlotte M. Reutter, of Harrisburg, 


56 


Winebrenner—A Character Sketch 57 


October 10, 1822. This union was blessed with six 
children. After a happy married life of nearly twelve 
years, Mrs. Winebrenner was called to the heavenly 
home, May 20, 1834. His second marriage was to Mary 
H. Mitchell, also of Harrisburg, November 2, 1837. 
Of the four children by this marriage, three, John A. 
Winebrenner, Marshall H. Winebrenner and Emma W. 
Christman are living at this time (1926). Their 
mother passed away May 22, 1888. 


The real character of a man, whatever it may 
appear to be elsewhere, is certain to be revealed in the 
family circle. But the domestic life of the true man 
is always in accord with his public life. So it was with 
Winebrenner. Through the kindness of his only sur- 
viving daughter, Mrs. Emma Winebrenner Christman, 
we have recently come into possession of much his- 
torical matter never before available, including a good 
deal of her father’s domestic correspondence. When 
away from home, as he was much of the time, his 
frequent letters bear on every page the charm ofa 
loving husband and father. There was counsel, comfort 
and encouragement for the wife and thoughtful kind- 
ness for the children. In a letter from Wooster, Ohio, 
June 10, 1850, while he was on his long trip to the 
West in company with Harn, he asks: 

“How does Emma and the little boys come on? Are 
they good children, going to school and church and 
trying to learn? Give them all a sweet kiss for me, 
and tell them if they are good I will soon send them 
something.” 


58 History of the Churches of God 


In a long letter of November 27, 1851, to his 
daughter Ellen, who had recently accompanied her 
husband, Rev. James Colder, to a mission field in China, 
we find him saying: 

“During the time of your voyage, whilst tossing 
amid the ocean waves and perils, many anxious 
thoughts flitted through my mind, and many ardent 
prayers for your health and safety were addressed to 
Him whose voice the winds and the waves obey. The 
emotions felt and the impressions made at the time of 
our parting on the first of March, when we gave you 
the parting hand and commended you to God and bade 
you an affectionate adieu, will not soon nor easily be 
forgotten. Your grateful remembrance of my parting 
words, “God bless you, my child, farewell!’ are not more 
fondly cherished by you than your deep emotions, your 
tender took, your soft hand, and your sweet warm lips 
in giving the parting kiss are and shall be by me. 
Feelings and recollections so pure and intense, time and 
distance shall never obliterate.” 

In speaking and writing about his parents, as he 
frequently did, Winebrenner always made a distinction 
between his father and mother in reference to the 
spiritual life. “Both of my parents,” he says, “were 
members of the German Reformed denomination. My 
mother was pious. She prayed much with and for her 
children and carefully taught them the duties and 
principles of religion. The prayers and instructions of 
my mother impressed my mind with a sense of my 
duties and obligations to God at a very early period of 
my life.” Evidently his father’s life was that of the 


Winebrenner—A Character Sketch 59 


average member of the German Reformed Church— 
a life marked by religious formality but lacking in 
spirituality. Winebrenner felt that his father needed 
the blessing of regenerating grace, and he urged this 
necessity upon him from time to time. In a letter 
written November 18, 1835, he said: 

“My dear Father: Having been much concerned 
about you since my last visit, I beg leave to drop you a 
few lines and request you to let me hear from you. I 
should like to know whether you have found peace and 
salvation. I have been trying to pray for you night 
and day, and I do hope that the Lord has done some- 
thing for you. If, however, you have not yet obtained 
a blessing, don’t give up looking to Christ by faith and 
prayer, and he will yet manifest himself to your soul. 
My prayer shall still be for your welfare.” 

These human touches, deep and tender, give us a 
revelation of character that is well worth remembering. 

The supreme passion of Winebrenner’s life was 
for the salvation of souls. This was why he preached, 
and this was why so much of his preaching was of a 
strictly evangelistic character. He began his ministry 
with this message, as we have already seen, among a 
people whose formality needed it but refused to accept 
it. And this passion possessed him to the end of his 
public ministry. The last General Eldership which he 
attended was that of 1860, at Upper Sandusky, Ohio, 
where he preached the Sunday morning sermon. His 
subject was “God’s Compassion to the True Penitent,”’ 
with Jeremiah 31:18-20 as a text. It was an unusual 
subject for such an occasion, but entirely characteristic 


60 History of the Churches of God 


of Winebrenner. And it was a fortunate selection, for 
it enabled him to preach out of the fulness of his heart 
and with an earnestness, pathos and fervency which 
enabled his brethren from the different Elderships to 
remember him for what, more than anything else, he 
was, an exceptionally able and effective evangelistic 
preacher of the gospel of the Son of God. | 

But while he was always at his best when deliver- 
ing the evangelistic message, it should not be inferred 
that he was lacking in ability along other lines of pulpit 
effort. The years of our history have produced no 
stronger preacher on strictly doctrinal subjects. When 
thus contending for the faith he was able to so marshal 
his arguments as to make them almost irresistible. 
And whatever the kind of sermon he preached, there 
was a clearness of thought, a plainness of speech, a 
fluency of expression and an impressiveness of manner 
which always made the sincere seeker after the truth 
feel that it was good to be there. 

Had it been possible for Winebrenner to spend all 
of his time in the evangelistic field the results of his 
work might have been even larger than they were. But 
while he was a preacher at large most of the time, he 
found it necessary to serve as a pastor for a number of 
years. And circumstances required him to assume a 
great many executive responsibilities. It naturally fell 
to his lot to be the leader in the work of organization, 
as well as along all other lines of activity. And all this, 
to say nothing of his labors as an editor, author and 
publisher, which will be considered in a later chapter. 
Besides, he was left for the most part to rely on his 


Winebrenner—A Character Sketch 61 


own financial resources, and found it necessary to 
devote considerable energy and time to business enter- 
prises. Truly he was abundant in labors, and the varied 
responsibilities of his busy life developed a versatility 
which otherwise would never have been disclosed. For 
his service was efficient and his efforts were commend- 
able along all lines of Christian endeavor. 

All true Christians exemplify the word of God by 
their daily lives. But close observation will show that 
each Christian life manifests some part of the word in 
particular, and in some cases to such an extent that the 
life always suggests the scripture which it makes a 
living reality among men. From this point of view the 
character of Winebrenner was a suggestive illustration 
of the great principles set forth in the thirteenth chap- 
ter of First Corinthians. From a human standpoint 
his power was in his love, his kindness and his for- 
bearance. He was a gentleman in the truest sense of 
that word. His was the charity that suffers long, envies 
not, vaunts not itself, “is not easily provoked,” and 
“rejoiceth in the truth.” 

The preceding paragraph may explain why Wine- 
brenner never entered the polemic arena in public 
debate. He lived at a time when this was one of the 
means by which different religious bodies sought to 
further their respective interests. And, as the leader 
of one of these movements, he was the logical man to 
meet an opponent when the cause which he represented 
was assailed, just as Alexander Campbell, at the same 
period of time, stepped to the front when there was 
debating to be done for the Disciples. But he left this 


62 History of the Churches of God 


particular method of contending for the truth to Keller, 
Harn and others of his fellow workers. No doubt he 
rejoiced in their victories. But as for himself, it was 
not in keeping with his disposition. He confined his 
efforts to preaching the word, believing that the One 
whose mouthpiece he was in sending it forth would not 
permit it to return void. It is interesting to note, too, - 
that the prevailing sentiment of the present is in accord 
with Winebrenner’s attitude of the early years. Public 
debates on doctrinal questions make an interesting part 
of the religious history of the nineteenth century. And 
most of the time, from 1830, we had a few ministers 
who were eager to embrace such opportunities, and 
who acquitted themselves with credit to the cause. But 
this feature of church work is now wholly a thing of 
the past. 

The space of this volume is too limited to record 
the many tributes to the character and work of Wine- 
brenner by those who knew him personally and labored 
with him. But from among the number we select the 
testimonial of James Mackey, an intimate friend and 
fellow minister for many years, who says: 

“My long acquaintance with John Winebrenner 
gave me every opportunity of a thorough knowledge of 
the man, who, whatever prejudice may invent, it is 
settled, was a great reformer of the nineteenth century. 
He was a model man of the age in which he lived, and 
though fallible, like other men, has perhaps sacrificed 
more than any man I know to serve God and promote 
His cause. In clouds or sunshine, through good and 
evil report, he persevered with wonderful steadiness, 


Winebrenner—A Character Sketch 63 


and his serenity of mind and devotion were constant. 
He has gone to his quiet rest, not amidst the applause 
of the unthinking multitude, nor surrounded with the 
gorgeous and fulsome praise of men who seek this from 
mortals more than that honor which comes down from 
above; but in the hearts and memories of God’s people 
did our brother treasure up a good report and an affec- 
tion which time will not obliterate. And our hope is 
unshaken, that with the blood-washed millions in 
heaven his ample reward, through the righteousness of 
his Redeemer, is forever secured.” 

During the closing weeks of his life Winebrenner 
gave expression to a retrospective comment which 
indicates his own appraisement of his life and work. 
He said: 

“There are things in my life which I have to 
regret; but, upon the whole, I have lived with a con- 
science void of offense toward God and man. And if 
I had my life to live over again, I do not know that I 
would change it in any particular, except some little 
things in which I may have erred in judgment. I have 
never felt free to waste my time and talents, and some- 
times I have thought I taxed my mind more than my 
body was able to bear. None of my troubles through 
life at any time disturbed my sleep, or destroyed my 
appetite. I have not been without my temptations to 
ease and comfort; but I have withstood them all, and 
find it is the best to go without the gates and wage war 
with the devil. And the great comfort of my life is to 
know, feeble as the effort has been, God has blest it.”’ 

The inscription on Winebrenner’s monument in 


64 History of the Churches of God 


the Harrisburg Cemetery is an appropriate paragraph 
with which to conclude this chapter: 

“An able minister of the New Testament—earnest 
and signally blest, in his efforts to save his fellow men. 
He has perpetuated his own memory, not on tables of 
stone, but on fleshy tables of the heart: “They that turn 
many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever. 
and ever.’ A successful reformer, he labored to build 
up the Church of God, she having one name, one faith, 
one baptism and one mission. This: To gather together 
in one all the children of God that are scattered 
abroad.” 


CHAPTER GV IIT: 


GROWTH OF ORGANIZED ACTIVITIES 


The work of winning souls and promoting their 
fellowship and usefulness in churches established after 
the New ‘Testament pattern has always been the 
supreme purpose of our ministry and laity. 

During the early years of our history this was 
almost the only purpose. But as time passed the 
necessity for developing methods of church work in 
the way of organized activities and additional depart- 
ments became clear and received increasing attention. 

These steps were always looked upon as merely 
means to an end, the end being that just mentioned— 
soul-saving and church upbuilding. It was on this 
ground that Winebrenner justified the organization of 
the first Eldership, in 1830. In his sermon on that 
occasion, from Acts 5:38, 39, he interpreted ‘“counsel”’ 
and “work” to mean “the preaching and propagation of 
Christianity; or, in other words, the conversion of 
sinners, the formation of churches, and the supply of 
the destitute with the gospel ministry. ‘The further- 
ance of this counsel and work, then, is the great 
ostensible object contemplated by the present meeting 
....And for the accomplishment of this,” he said, “we 
purpose to unite on the best and most efficient plan of 
co-operation.” 

For the same purpose Elderships were organized 


65 


66 History of the Churches of God 


in Ohio, West Pennsylvania, Indiana and Iowa, as we 
have seen in a preceding chapter. Then followed the 
organization of other Elderships from time to time, 
so that by 1900 the following additional names are 
found on the list, making eighteen Elderships in all: 
Michigan, organized in 1850; Illinois, 1853; Texas and 
Arkansas, 1857; Maryland and _ Virginia, 1872; 
Nebraska, 1875; Southern Indiana, 1881; Missouri, 
1881; Kansas, 1881; West Virginia (North), 1883; 
Oregon and Washington, 1891; Oklahoma and Indian 
Territory, 1892; West Virginia (South), 1894; 
Arkansas (Colored), 1896. 

Several other Elderships, which were organized 
during these years, had lost their identity prior to 1900, 
either by consolidation or otherwise. 

The Maine Eldership, unlike the others, was not 
formed as a result of our missionary activities, but by 
the affiliation with us of a number of local churches of 
a similar faith in that state, and their organization into 
an Eldership in 1874. This was brought about largely 
through the influence of Dr. George Ross and Rev. 
George Sigler, of the Fast Pennsylvania Eldership, 
who visited the brethren in Maine early in 1873, and 
Rev. Peter Loucks, of the West Pennsylvania Elder- 
ship, who made two visits to Maine later in the same 
year. But the great distance of this Eldership from 
the rest of the General Eldership, as well as local 
difficulties, hindered success, and the ecclesiastical rela- 
tionship ceased after a score of years. 

The German Eldership was established in 1854 to 
meet the needs of those who desired religious services 


Growth of Organized Activities 67 


in the German language, and for a time this end was 
accomplished in a fairly satisfactory manner. But it 
was found that a linguistic dividing line was not as 
serviceable a safeguard against friction as a geograph- 
ical one. Besides, the gradual growth of the English 
language among these people had its natural effect— 
an effect not favorable to the future of the German 
organization. So the official relation of this Elder- 
ship to the General Eldership ended with an action of 
the latter body in 1893, at which time its organized 
activities had practically ceased. 

Since 1900 the Oklahoma and Indian Territory 
Eldership, in keeping with the geographical change, has 


'. become the Oklahoma Eldership. Oregon and Wash- 


ington have been divided into two Elderships under 
their respective names, but the work on the Pacific 
coast, never very substantial, is practically extinct. 
The Arkansas Eldership (Colored) has become the 
Arkansas and Oklahoma Eldership (Colored). 

The development of the organization idea was seen 
not only in the establishing of annual Elderships and a 
General Eldership, but also in the systematizing of 
their work. The formation of the first Eldership was 
of an elementary character, and included but little more 
than the effecting of an organization. The develop- 
ment of the organization was a gradual growth. From 
time to time the work was divided into different 
departments, for the management of which appropriate 
boards and committees were created as the need arose, 
to function in the interim between the meetings of the 
Eldership. ‘These subordinate organizations in the 


68 History of the Churches of God 


annual Elderships include a Standing Committee, to 
exercise ministerial discipline, provide for vacancies in 
appointments, and similar duties; a Board of Missions, 
to care for the weaker fields; a Board of Education, to 
have charge of the Eldership course of studies; a - 
Board of Finance and a Board of Church Extension, 
for the work which these names indicate. The number 
of boards and committees varies in different Elderships, 
but those just mentioned will give an idea of the char- 
acter and development of these ecclesiastical organiza- 
tions. Naturally the same process of development is 
seen in the General Eldership. It has a Board of Publi- 
cation to manage an interest which at first was an indi- 
vidual responsibility ; a Board of Missions to control the 
important work which was originally promoted directly 
by annual Elderships; the establishing of our own pub- 
lishing house made necessary the creation of a Board of 
Directors for its management. The General Eldership 
also has an Executive Board and a Board of Education. 

In addition to the changes in organization details 
due to the expansion of its work, the General Elder- 
ship has made other changes of importance from time 
to time. For example, at the session of 1896 the name 
was changed from “Church of God” to “Churches of 
God,” on the ground that the singular form is a denom- 
inational application of the word “church,” which is 
not justified by its use and meaning in the Scriptures. 
And at the session of 1899 the General Eldership 
changed the custom which had been in vogue in the 
Elderships of giving ministers an Annual License and 
adopted for general and uniform use a Life Certificate 


Growth of Organized Activities 69 


as being more in keeping with the significance of minis- 
terial ordination. 

The period from 1875 to 1900 (the last quarter 
of the nineteenth century and the third quarter of our 
first century) is notable also for the development of 
organized activities other than those of the annual 
Elderships and the General Eldership. 

Prior to this time about the only auxiliary that the 
churches had was the Sunday-school. And this im- 
portant branch of the churches’ work took on new 
life and vigor through the centennial anniversary of 
the Sunday-school movement, in 1880, an event which 
was quite generally observed by all religious bodies. 
Sunday-school conventions also became quite popular 
and were held in a number of the Elderships. 

Then came the Young People’s Society of Chris- 
tian Endeavor, originating in 1881, through the instru- 
mentality of Rev. Francis FE. Clark. It at once appealed 
to the forward looking ministers and laymen of the 
Churches of God, especially those of the younger gene- 
ration. They regarded it as the best method yet pro- 
posed for the care of converts and the development 
of the spiritual life of the young people and the control 
of their religious activities. The result was the organi- 
zation by our ministers of a number of Christian 
Endeavor societies early in the history of this move- 
ment and their multiplication through the succeeding 
years. This is our only young people’s organization, 
and it has fully supplied our needs wherever it has 
been properly managed and supported. 

In addition to these things there are two other 


70 History of the Churches of God 


events in the development of our organized activities 
during this period which are of far-reaching influence 
in our work as a religious body. The first was the 
establishing of Findlay College, in 1882; and the second 
was the inaugurating of our foreign missionary enter- 
prise, in 1896. These subjects, because of their special 
importance, are left for consideration in succeeding 
chapters. 

These different lines of organized effort naturally 
required and received a great deal of attention on the 
part of the brotherhood. But the real end, for the 
attainment of which they were but the means, was never 
lost sight of. Missionary evangelism was continued, 
and, while a good many church projects failed, in many 
other places the efforts produced gratifying results. 

Missionary work was carried on in Nebraska, 
Michigan, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Indian Terri- 
tory, and to a limited extent on the Pacific coast. The 
best known missionaries were Daniel Blakely, C. S. 
Bolton, G. T. Bell, J. W. Riddle, D. S. Summit, J. F. 
Schoch, D. Keplinger, J. C. Forncrook, J. Garrigus, 
A. Wilson, E. M. Kirkpatrick, J. C. Caswell, C. H. 
Ballinger and H. W. Allen. R. H. Bolton traveled 
extensively as a general worker and collector of mis- 
sionary funds. These brethren reported many conver- 
sions on their fields of labor, the organization of a 
creditable number of churches in new places and the 
erection of some houses of worship. 

While these missionary operations were in progress 
on the frontier, aggressive work was continued in the 
older Elderships. Of the ministers who held promi- 


Growth of Organized Activities Al 


nent places during these years the following are men- 
tioned: C. H. Forney, George Sigler, D. A. L. Laverty, 
AgHeLongJA) Swartz, C. Price, J..M.,Carvelly BiB. 
Beck, D. S. Shoop, M. M. Foose and J. W. Deshong, 
in Kast Pennsylvania; S. Spurrier and G. W. Seil- 
hammer in Maryland; John Hickernell, Jacob M. 
Domer, Peter Loucks and R. L. Byrnes in West Penn- 
sylvania; N. M. Anderson in West Virginia; G. W. 
Wilson, H. W. Oliver, J. M. Cassell, T. Koogle, W. P. 
Small, J. R. H. Latshaw, and J. W. Aukerman in 
Ohio; I. W. Markley and W. W. Lovett in Indiana; 
Geo. Sandoe, M. S. Newcomer, I. S. Richmond, W. B. 
Allen, W. I. Berkstresser, J. Bernard and O. B. Huston 
in Illinois; J. S. Miller, C. S. Wilson, A. Hollems, J. C. 
Kepford, A. C. Garner, J. Lininger, J. M. Klein and 
L. F. Chamberlin in Iowa. 

These brethren, with their no less worthy but less 
widely known fellow ministers, adorned the years of 
their activity with a spirit of devotion and self-sacrifice 
in keeping with their “high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus.” And they were not without reward in the 
visible results of their labors. Many hundreds of souls 
were saved and added unto the churches. Spirituality 
was cultivated. Material interests were improved. 
Better systems were introduced for the support of the 
ministry. Greater impetus was given to the movement 
to secure parsonages. Many new church-houses were 
built and others were remodeled to better adapt them 
to the plans of aggressive church and Sunday-school 
work. 

The celebration of our semi-centennial during this 


72 History of the Churches of God 


period created a fresh interest and contributed some- 
thing toward the advancement of the cause. This was 
in 1880, fifty years after the organization of the first 
Eldership. The anniversary was observed with appro- 
priate services in the churches and numerous articles 
appeared in The Church Advocate on our history, doc- 
trine and polity. 

The spiritual welfare of the freedmen has claimed 
the attention of our people to a limited extent ever 
since the Civil War, but with only meager results. For 
many years we have had a few colored churches within 
the territory and under the jurisdiction of the Fast 
Pennsylvania Eldership. ‘They have struggled along 
faithfully without the encouragement of substantial 
growth. They are at this time under the pastoral care 
of Rev. W. J. Winfield, S. T. B., the best qualified 
man of his race, intellectually, that these churches have 
ever had. In 1896, following a few years of missionary 
work among the colored people of the western part of 
Arkansas the General Eldership established ‘The 
Arkansas Eldership of the Churches of God (Col- 
ored). This official action naturally gave a more 
general interest to this department of work. It is now 
The Arkansas and Oklahoma Eldership (Colored). 
And while here, as in the East, no great success has 
been attained, the efforts put forth have at least been 
significant of our sympathetic attitude toward the col- 
ored race. 

During these years missionaries of the southwest 
in the employ of the Board of Missions of the General 
Eldership did considerable work among the Indians in 


Growth of Organized Activities ris 


the territory bearing their name, resulting in a good 
many conversions. A few churches were organized, 
while other converts affiliated with white churches 
already established. 

Another movement of more than ordinary signifi- 
cance, which had its inception at the close of this period, 
was the beginning of missionary work among for- 
eigners in western Pennsylvania. During the early 
part of 1896 a number of persons of Slavic nationality 
were converted in an evangelistic meeting held by the 
church of God at Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania. 
These converts were devoted and zealous, and anxious 
to carry the glad news to others of their people. Under 
the direction of the pastor, S. G. Yahn, a mission was 
started in another part of the town and a deep interest 
was created. Two brothers among the converts, John 
and Jacob Luchansky, were men of more than ordinary 
talent and soon developed into capable preachers of 
the gospel message. A number of others, in the course 
of time, also became effective speakers. They were all 
filled with the missionary spirit and anxious that the 
rest of their people might come into possession of the 
salvation which they had found. As a result the work 
spread to other localities in western Pennsylvania and 
over into Ohio, so that we now have missions in a 
number of industrial centers. ‘Those who returned to 
their homeland carried the truth with them and scat- 
tered the seed. There has been the time of growth 
and the season of fruit-bearing has come. We now 
have several hundred members in Czecho-Slovakia and 
Hungary, fairly well organized for aggressive work. 


Cit AUP apt oee 


PUBLISHING INTERESTS 


Church papers have long since been considered 
indispensable in the successful prosecution of church 
work, and the number of such periodicals is more 
numerous than the religious bodies which they are 
intended to serve. 

But this was not the case a hundred years ago and 
even later. Then there were only a few religious papers 
in the United States and these were difficult to main- 
tain. | 

This, considered in connection with the fact that 
Winebrenner already had numerous and heavy burdens 
of responsibility in “the care of all the churches,” 
enables us to better appreciate his foresight and zeal 
in establishing a creditable church paper at any early 
period of our history. 

Winebrenner evidently recognized the need of a 
church paper very soon after the organization of the 
first Eldership, in 1830, for as early as 1833 this project 
was considered and indorsed by the Eldership. There 
were some unavoidable delays, but on June 5, 1835, the 
first issue of the paper appeared, under the name of 
The Gospel Publisher. It consisted of four pages, 
about fifteen by ten inches in size, and was published 
weekly at the price of one dollar and fifty cents a year. 

The life of the paper under this name covered a 


74 


Publishing Interests rb 


little more than a decade. The subscription list during 
this period probably averaged about five hundred. 
Winebrenner, after serving as editor for nearly five 
years, was succeeded by Rev. J. F. Weishampel, a ver- 
satile writer and energetic worker, who continued in 
this position for three years and eight months. Rev. 
George McCartney succeeded Weishampel in January, 
1844, and continued as editor until the paper suspended 
publication, in August, 1845. 


THe CHurcH ADVOCATE 


The failure of this first attempt to establish a 
church paper on a permanent basis did not discourage 
the more thoughtful and forward looking members of 
the churches. They felt that the project was both 
possible and desirable, and they were ready to try 
again. Accordingly they turned to Winebrenner, who, 
although he had no inclinations in the direction of 
editorial work, was always willing to subordinate his 
personal preferences to the good of the cause, © 
especially in supplying what seemed to be an imperative 
need. But little time was spent in preliminaries, for in 
June, 1846, the paper was revived under the name 
which it has borne ever since—The Church Advocate. 
For six years it was published semi-monthly, and then 
became a weekly. Wauinebrenner remained at the helm 
for eleven years, and then sought to relieve himself of 
the “toils and perplexities of editorial life” by trans- 
ferring the paper to his son-in-law, Rev. James Colder. 

It should be remembered that while The Church 
Advocate was, in a sense, the official organ of the 


76 History of the Churches of God 


Church of God, and while Eldership and General 
Eldership actions were taken and a Publishing Com- 
mittee and a Board of Publication were provided from 
time to time, the work of conducting and financing the 
paper was practically the individual responsibility of 
the editor. And the greater weight of responsibility. 
was always the financial burden. For obvious reasons 
Winebrenner held a unique place in the confidence and 
affections of the brotherhood, which many times 
enabled him to succeed where others failed. And so 
it turned out again, for in less than two years Colder 
abandoned the project “because of embarassment for 
want of funds.” 

Rev. EF. H. Thomas became the next editor of 
The Church Advocate, and for once the mantle of 
Winebrenner fell on the shoulders of the right man. 
Thomas resembled Winebrenner in many respects, and 
was better adapted to and more capable of filling Wine- 
brenner’s place, not only in the editorial chair but also 
in other positions than any one who had so far been 
tried. For ten years, although in failing health part of 
the time, he devoted himself with unsparing energy 
and marked ability to his important task, and was 
rewarded with results which placed the church paper’s 
standard of success, financially and otherwise, higher 
than it had ever been before. The subscription list had 
increased to approximately three thousand. 

On the death of Thomas, September 11, 1869, 
Rev. C. H. Forney, the assistant editor, succeeded to. 
the editorship, a position which he filled continuously 
until 1909— a period of forty years. Forney brought 


Publishing Interests 77 


to the position the optimism of a young man of thirty 
years, combined with the persistent purpose which is 
essential to the successful promotion of a difficult enter- 
prise. His natural and acquired abilities as a journalist 
were good and were judiciously developed by study 
and practice. His editorial discussions were thorough 
and comprehensive. The fundamental and distinctive 
doctrines of the Churches of God were frequently and 
clearly taught. The enterprises of the General Elder- 
ship were loyally supported. Current events and their 
religious bearing received discriminating comment. 
Pastors and churches were guided and encouraged in 
their work by editorial counsel. His economic manage- 
ment of the affairs of The Church Advocate was par- 
ticularly notable. Under his direction the paper 
became self-sustaining, and also accumulated a small 
surplus from year to year, which, in the aggregate, 
aided materially in establishing a publishing house. 
On the retirement of Dr. Forney, at the General 
Eldership of 1909, Rev. S. G. Yahn, D. D., of the West 
Pennsylvania Eldership, was elected editor and has 
been continued in this position since then by successive 
te-elections. The arrangement of The Church Advo- 
cate has been almost entirely changed, in keeping with 
the most desirable features of modern religious jour- 
nalism. ‘The subscription list has increased from about 
2,000, in 1909, to nearly 6,000, in 1925. An endowment 
fund was started in 1917 with a surplus of $8,500 on 
hand at that time. This was increased annually during 
the next eight years by the addition of a certain per- 
centage from the Forward Movement fund, making a 


78 History of the Churches of God 


total endowment of approximately $65,000. This has 
placed the paper on a substantial basis financially, not- 
withstanding the fact that its cost of production during 
the World War and since has been practically twice 
what it was before. It has also made possible a reduc- 
tion in the subscription price below that of any other 
paper of similar size and quality. : 

All of the editors of The Church Advocate except 
the present one were from the East Pennsylvania 
Eldership. 


SuNDAY SCHOOL LITERATURE 


The effort to supply literature for the Sunday- 
schools dates from 1867. The Sunday School Gem 
made its appearance in that year, having been author- 
ized and provided for by the General Eldership of 1866. 
It was successfully established under the direction of 
E. H. Thomas, editor of The Church Advocate, who 
laid a good foundation for the work of subsequent 
years. In January, 1869, Thomas was succeeded in 
the editorship by J. H. Redsecker, an East Pennsyl- 
vania layman of good ability as a writer and well 
qualified for work of this kind. His service continued 
for nine years, when Rev. George Sigler, of the East 
Pennsylvania Eldership, became his successor. Sigler 
was an able preacher and an efficient and faithful 
pastor. And his influence, which was always of special 
value in the Sunday-school, now extended to the Sun- 
day-schools everywhere. W. A. Laverty, a good writer 
and a very active and efficient layman of the First 
Church in Harrisburg succeeded Sigler as editor in 


Publishing Interests 79 


1896 and filled the position in an acceptable manner for 
twenty years. J. B. Martin, of Middletown, Pennsyl- 
vania, another layman of prominence in Sunday-school 
work became the editor of The Sunday School Gem in 
1916 and continued to serve acceptably in that position 
until 1921, when all of the Sunday-school periodicals 
were placed under one editorship. 

For seventeen years The Sunday School Gem was 
published monthly, from 1884 to 1906 semi-monthly, 
and since then weekly. It has been successful from the 
beginning, and by 1925 had reached a weekly circula- 
tion of over nine thousand copies. 

The first attempt to supply helps in the study of 
the Sunday-school lesson was made in 1879, when The 
Sunday School Workman, a monthly publication was 
issued with Rev. Peter Loucks, a leading minister of 
the West Pennsylvania Eldership as editor. At the 
end of two years and a half, Loucks was succeeded by 
J. H. Redsecker, who, in turn, was succeeded, in 1886, 
by Rev. J. M. Carvell, a prominent minister of the 
East Pennsylvania Eldership. In 1890 Rev. D. S. 
Shoop, another well-known preacher of the East Penn- 
sylvania Eldership became the editor of this periodical, 
which, from that time has been known as The Work- 
man Quarterly. Shoop’s editorship continued for 
twenty-three years and received the merited approval 
of the general brotherhood. He was succeeded, in 
1913, by Rev. C. H. Grove, of the East Pennsylvania 
Eldership, who brought to the position the benefit of 
his experience as a pastor and Sunday-school worker, 
as well as his exceptional ability as a Bible student and 


80 ‘History of the Churches of God 


writer. He also became the editor of The Jumor- 
Intermediate Quarterly, authorized by the General 
Eldership of 1913 for the use of the boys and girls. 

Efforts to provide the little folks with literature 
resulted in the appearance, January 1, 1885, of a 
small weekly paper called The Sunbeam. This was fol- 
lowed, in 1896, by the Primary Quarterly. ‘The success 
of these efforts was due largely to the admirable work 
of Miss Lydia A. Forney, of Harrisburg. She became 
the second editor of The Sunbeam (succeeding Sadie 
R. Hemperly, of Middletown, Pennsylvania, who had 
served with efficiency for a little less than two years) 
and the first editor of the Primary Quarterly. She 
continued to edit the Quarterly until it was discontinued 
by the General Eldership of 1913, on the adoption of 
plans for the Junior-Intermediate Quarterly. Her 
editorship of The Sunbeam was terminated by her 
resignation in 1914. The vacancy was filled by the 
election of Miss Edith Myers, of Mount Joy, Pennsyl- 
vania, who served until 1920, and was succeeded by 
Rev. C.,H. Grove, D. D. 

The General Eldership of 1921 made effective a 
plan which had been contemplated for a number of 
years, that of putting all of our Sunday-school litera- 
ture under one editorial and business management, and 
elected Dr. C. H. Grove to this important position. 
The following periodicals were thus placed under his 
direction: The Sunday School Gem, The Sunbeam, 
The Workmen Quarterly, The Home Department 
Quarterly, The Lesson Leaves, and The Junior-Inter- 
mediate Quarterly. ‘This literature has been edited with 


Publishing Interests 81 


marked ability, and its growing popularity among the 
Sunday-schools is evidenced by an increasing circula- 
tion from year to year. 


THE PRINTING PLANT 


Harrisburg has been our publication headquarters 
from the beginning of this enterprise, in 1835, until the 
present time, with the exception of three years when 
The Church Advocate was located in Shiremanstown, 
two months in Mount Joy and fifteen years in Lan- 
caster. 

The principal difficulty was encountered in estab- 
lishing and maintaining a printing plant. Naturally 
it was limited and crude compared with such establish- 
ments of today, but it served its purpose. Yet the 
equipment, materials and wages most of the time in- 
volved more expense than could be provided for by 
the relatively small list of subscribers and the uncer- 
tainty as to the payment of their subscriptions. Con- 
tributions were solicited from time to time to meet the 
ever-present debts. Those in official responsibility as 
members of the publishing board or committee were 
obliged to bear a good deal of the financial burden and 
to suffer considerable loss. 

These financial struggles in connection with the 
printing establishment, whether owned by the General 
Eldership or the editor, continued until about 1870. 
During the next thirty-one years the printing was done 
by contract with other establishments. And this change, 
combined with other more favorable conditions, placed 
the Church paper on a self-sustaining basis. 


82 History of the Churches of God 


In 1901 another effort was made to establish our 
own publishing house, under conditions and with accu- 
mulated means which insured success. As a prelimi- 
nary step a book store had been opened in a rented 
room at 335 Market street, Harrisburg, in 1885. This 
was followed, in 1899, by the purchase of the property 
at 329 Market street, Harrisburg, and the transfer of 
the book store to that location in 1900. And a year 
later the necessary machinery was purchased and 
installed in the same building and the issue of The 
Church Advocate of July 3, 1901, was printed and 
mailed from our own Publishing House. Since that 
time our publishing interests have been handled more 
conveniently and satisfactorily than was possible while 
depending on other establishments, and they have 
been increasingly successful. 

In 1914, in order to provide more room and better 
facilities for the printing department, a brick building 
of three stories was erected on the rear of the Market 
street property at a cost of approximately $10,000, and 
some new equipment was added. The business con- 
tinued to prosper. 

From time to time the Publishing House has 
printed one or more periodicals for other religious 
bodies and has done considerable job work. ‘The print- 
ing of our Church and Sunday-school literature 
requires about three-fourths of the time. About one- 
fourth of the annual product is for outside customers. 

In 1920 the Market street property was sold for 
$135,000. A new site was purchased on the corner of 
Thirteenth and Walnut streets, where a fine building 








Central PusiisHinc House. 


Publishing Interests 83 


was erected, into which the publishing business was 
transferred in the fall of 1922. This gave the Churches 
of God a much larger and better publishing house, with 
twice as much machinery, and $53,000 left for endow- 
ment. This endowment has enabled the Board of 
Directors to lower the prices of our Sunday-school 
literature and will make possible the circulation of 
much-needed promotional literature. At the time this 
change was made it was decided to eliminate the book 
store and devote the entire plant to the printing and 
publishing business. 

In addition to what has been said about our 
periodical literature, it should be added that the books 
published during the century make a creditable list. 
More than fifty of our ministers have been the authors 
of from one to several books and pamphlets. In this, 
as in other matters, Winebrenner takes the lead. 
Considering the conditions of those early years and the 
financial and other difficulties which operated as hin- 
drances to such efforts, the number of religious books, 
hymn-books and pamphlets which he published is 
rather remarkable. 


CHAPTER X. 


EDUCATIONAL WORK 


In the early years of our history our people in 
general were indifferent to the subject of education, 
especially higher education. Some of them, indeed, 
were more than indifferent; they were opposed to 
education—even to the education of young men for the 
ministry. 

The characteristics and ancestral history of the 
people with whom our work had its beginning, as set 
forth in chapter one, partly explains their attitude and 
opposition relative to education. A further explana- 
tion is found in the religious movement of which they 
were a part and which was of more absorbing interest 
to them than anything else. This movement was a 
spiritual awakening along evangelistic lines, which had 
for its chief opposition the formalism of certain denom- 
inations. It so happened that these denominations had 
most of the ministerial education of that day. Their 
pastors were well educated. They were intellectually 
strong but spiritually weak, and the churches to which 
they ministered had the form of godliness without its 
power. On the other hand, the men who were preach- 
ing the gospel to our people were without the training 
of the schools, Winebrenner being almost the only 
minister of those years who had received a classical 
and theological education. But these men had the 


84 


Educational Work 85 


power of the Holy Spirit. They preached with the 
divine unction, and the people greatly rejoiced in their 
ministry. It was not, therefore, unnatural, though very 
unfortunate, that they placed education and the Holy 
Spirit in contrast. The same was true of certain other 
religious bodies of that day which had sprung up 
through the evangelistic awakening. For a good many 
years their leaders, in their efforts to establish schools, 
had to contend with the opposition of many of their 
people to an educated ministry. These people were 
entirely sincere. They believed that their “preachers 
should be made by the Lord, not by the schools ;” they 
wanted a “religion of the heart, not of the head.” That 
there is no essential conflict between an education and 
the Holy Spirit; that genuine religion is of both the 
head and the heart; this, the real truth, they finally 
grasped; but it required years of waiting and teaching. 

In this matter of patient training and_ tactful 
agitation Winebrenner’s leadership was no less efficient 
than in other departments of our work. He urged the 
matter of education privately and publicly. And his 
precepts were supported by an example which gave 
them peculiar power. Both education and the Holy 
Spirit were clearly in evidence in all that he did for the 
churches, and thus his personal example did much to 
correct the erroneous impression that the former is 
antagonistic to the latter. 

At the first General Eldership, in 1845, the follow- 
ing resolutions were adopted: 

“Resolved, That this Eldership consider the sub- 


86 History of the Churches of God 


ject of education of vital importance, both from a civil 
and religious point of view. 

“Resolved, That we recommend to the members of 
the churches to have their children liberally educated 
to the utmost extent of their ability.” 

Other leaders came to the aid of Winebrenner in 
this agitation in favor of higher education as a church 
movement. Official actions were adopted by various 
Elderships and the General Eldership from time to 
time and several unsuccessful attempts were made to 
establish schools under ecclesiastical control. 

The first of these efforts was made by the East 
Pennsylvania Eldership when, in October, 1850, it 
appointed a committee with authority to establish an 
institution of learning. Nothing definite was accom- 
plished, however, until 1856, when a site of about 
three acres was purchased on the Swatara creek, near 
Middletown, for $1,000, and plans secured from an 
architect for a school building which was to cost 
$20,000. The institution was to be known as The 
Swatara Collegiate Institute. The school was to be 
established and largely supported by the sale of stock. 
It was an ambitious undertaking, but it came to an early 
end. The building was not erected, and the following 
year the trustees were authorized to sell the ground 
and the project was abandoned. 

In the meantime an academy had been opened at 
Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. It was also a stock con- 
cern, and was controlled by members of the Church of 
God. George U. Harn and James Colder were 
especially interested in this project. It was called 


Educational Work 87 


The Shippensburg Institute. It received favorable 
consideration from many of our people, and indorse- 
ment from some of the Elderships; but it lacked per- 
manency. 

In the Fall of 1861 the East Pennsylvania Elder- 
ship took under advisement the project of purchasing 
the academy at Mount Joy and appointed a committee 
to take further steps in this direction. And, while the 
effort was unproductive of results, and was abandoned 
the next year, it shows that the importance of education 
was not lost sight of, and that the leaders of the Elder- 
ship were not daunted by previous failures. 

A few of the other Elderships also took official 
actions looking toward the establishment of schools, 
but without any substantial results. 

These commendable efforts and unfortunate 
failures illustrate the two facts already stated; namely, 
that while the importance of education was recognized 
by the leaders, who were therefore willing and anxious 
to do their part in establishing schools, it was not recog- 
nized by the brotherhood at large, upon whom such 
schools must depend for their students and financial 
support. 

By this time leading brethren were beginning to 
grasp the idea which, in the light of subsequent events 
we now know to be the true one, that the only success- 
ful plan for establishing and maintaining an institution 
of learning is the co-operative action of all the Elder- 
ships in support of one institution, instead of each of 
several Elderships trying to maintain its own school. 
And, as a natural corollary, that the establishing and 


88 History of the Churches of God 


maintaining of such an institution should be under the 
direction of the General Eldership. 

The first practical step in carrying out this plan 
was taken by the General Eldership of 1866, when it 
accepted a prospective academy at Centralia, Kansas, 
called The Centralia Collegiate Institute. It consisted 
of an unfinished building, a fund of several thousand _ 
dollars, and considerable land. But it was necessary 
for the General Eldership, as it had been for annual 
Elderships, to learn in the school of experience—an 
experience characterized by the dark hours of failure 
preceding the dawn of success. The General Eldership 
would not, of its own accord, have located an institu- 
tion of learning for the general body so far removed 
from its constituency as Centralia, Kansas. Nor did it 
do so in this case. The infant enterprise at Centralia 
was probably adopted because it is easier to accept a 
gift than to reject it. But the fact of its extreme dis- 
tance from our people in what was then the far west, 
and the additional fact that the matter of a college in 
a central location was being agitated at the same time 
caused the failure of the Centralia project and its 
abandonment in 1868. 

During the next thirteen years no definite steps 
were taken, but the subject of education was kept 
alive by discussion through The Church Advocate and 
by Eldership actions. Then came the year 1881, which, 
for two reasons, will ever be memorable in the history 
of our educational work. It was in that year that an 
academy was opened at Barkeyville, Venango county, 
Pennsylvania, which proved to be the most successful 


Educational Work 89 


effort of that kind which had so far been made. And 
it was the same year that the General Eldership took 
the action which resulted in establishing Findlay Col- 
lege, our splendid institution of learning at Findlay, 
Ohio. 

Rev. John R. H. Latchaw was the founder of Bar- 
keyville Academy. He started the school in the year 
named, in the bethel of the church of God at that place, 
of which he was the pastor. He was aided financially 
by public-spirited citizens and church members, 
especially by Henry Barkey and Abraham Hunsberger. 
The school made a good beginning under local manage- 
ment, but soon became an Eldership institution. By 
means of local gifts and Eldership support considerable 
ground was secured, a school building was erected, and 
later a boarding hall. There was a good attendance of 
students, not only from West Pennsylvania but also 
from other Elderships. Latchaw, after a term of four 
years, was followed in the principalship by E. F. 
Loucks, J. F. Bigler, Charles Manchester, W. C. 
Myers, Ira C. Eakin, G. W. Davis, H. K. Powell, and 
W. H. Guyer, in the order named. The principals and 
other members of the faculty who served from time to 
time were devoted servants of Christ. A genuine 
religious spirit was the controlling influence. A Chris- 
tian atmosphere was always in evidence. And for a 
quarter of a century this Academy exerted a splendid 
influence among the churches and sent out young people 
who later successfully filled positions of leadership and 
responsibility. A striking illustration of its far-reach- 
ing influence is found in the fact that five of the six 


90 History of the Churches of God 


presidents of Findlay College, before going to that 
institution, were connected with Barkeyville Academy, 
as principal, professor or graduate. The West Penn- 
sylvania Eldership, therefore, has the distinction of 
being the only annual Eldership which successfully 
established and maintained an institution of learning. 
“Success” and not “failure,” is the proper word to use. 
For while Barkeyville Academy ceased to exist some 
twenty years ago, the cause was not an inherent weak- 
ness, but the combination of two conditions which arose 
in the natural course of events. The one was the estab- 
lishing of high schools which provided, as a part of the 
free school system, training equivalent to that for which 
tuition had to be paid at academies. The other was the 
establishing of Findlay College, a higher institution of 
learning, but also having facilities for doing the work 
which had been done by Barkeyville Academy. 

The decision of the General Eldership in May, 
1881, to establish a college was followed by immediate 
results. In about two months the offer of the citizens 
of Findlay to donate ten acres of ground valued at 
$10,000 and $20,000 in cash on condition that the 
college be located there had been accepted, and col- 
lectors had been appointed to secure funds for building 
and endowment. This enterprise involved heavier 
responsibilities than any other upon which the General 
Eldership had so far entered. And, while many diffi- 
culties were encountered, the prosecution of the work 
was remarkably successful. The building decided upon 
was of beautiful design and ample proportions. ‘The 
response of the people to financial appeals was encour- 


oo) ly y 








FINDLAY COLLEGE. 


Educational Work 91 


aging. It was felt that something of real and substan- 
tial worth was being accomplished. The corner-stone 
was laid May 25, 1884, and the building was finished 
in the Fall of 1886. 

Rev. John R. H. Latchaw became the first president 
of Findlay College, in 1885. He entered upon his 
work with enthusiasm and gave his undivided attention 
and energy to the tasks before him. Many preliminary 
steps had to be taken, including the selection of other 
members of the faculty and the advertising necessary to 
bring the college to the attention of prospective 
students. This done, the time long and eagerly looked 
for arrived, and the brotherhood rejoiced in the 
auspicious opening of our first college, with about a 
hundred students, in September, 1886. 

Here, then, we at last had an institution of learning 
where our young people could receive their training 
under Church of God influences, and which would pro- 
vide not only the educational advantages of other col- 
leges, but also give special attention to the teaching of 
the Bible and the preparation of young men for the 
ministry of the gospel. The objective goal of many 
years had at last been reached. 

This was not only our first effort to establish a 
college, but, as we now know, a successful effort. Suc- 
cess, however, has come at the cost of many a financial 
struggle. It is one thing to establish a college. It is 
another thing to secure an endowment large enough to 
maintain it on a creditable basis. The first had been 
accomplished by 1886. The second remained to be 
done. This required faith, patience, teaching and agita- 


92 History of the Churches of God 


tion. Our people responded to financial appeals, but 
not to an extent sufficient to meet the expenses of 
running the college. ‘The result was an annual deficit, 
which, by the time the General Eldership met at Find- 
lay, in May, 1893, made an aggregate debt of about 
$25,000. In other respects, such as the strength of its 
teaching force and the size and character of its student 
body, the college had made a good record. But the 
amount of the debt, and the realization that a continu- 
ation of the conditions which created it would keep on 
increasing it, caused wide-spread dissatisfaction. This 
led to an investigation of the whole situation by the 
General Eldership, one result of which was a change 
in the presidency of the college. 

Rev. William N. Yates, a young man of twenty- 
eight years, who had graduated from the college two 
years before and who was then pastor of the Front 
Street Church of God in Findlay was called to this 
responsible position. His magnetic personality, his 
effectiveness as a speaker, his radiating enthusiasm 
and his deep spiritual devotion—the elements of his 
character which have become so familiar in later years 
—were already in evidence in 1893, and indicated to his 
brethren that he was the logical leader for that critical 
period in the history of our educational work. His 
first and hardest task, that of providing for the trouble- 
some debt which his administration inherited, was 
undertaken with courage and determination, with the 
result that the Board of Trustees, when it met in June, 
1894, announced that the debt had been assumed by the 
Elderships, each Eldership having pledged itself to 


Educational Work 93 


raise a proportionate share of the amount. Yates 
resigned as president the following year. During the 
two years of his incumbency, the first as Acting Presi- 
dent and the second as President, the college was in 
splendid working condition and a fine spirit prevailed. 

This second presidential crisis in the history of 
the college was met when the Board convened in 1895 
by the adoption of a plan which made Rev. Charles T. 
Fox, who had been a professor in the college for nine 
years, the Acting President. He rendered faithful and 
efficient service in this position for one year, and then 
declined a re-election. No man who has been connected 
with Findlay College has maintained a higher standing 
in the estimation of the general brotherhood and the 
student body than Dr. Fox. His long period of service 
of nearly forty years as a member of the college 
faculty, where he holds the position of Dean, is a fitting 
tribute to the satisfactory character of his work. 

Rev. Charles Manchester was the fourth head of 
Findlay College. He held this position for eight 
years—from 1896 to 1904—the first year as President 
of the Faculty, then as Acting President of the college, 
and later as President. Manchester was a thoroughly 
loyal, hard-working and self-sacrificing servant of the 
Church, and he carried these desirable elements into the 
work of his new position. He was a man of sterling 
‘Christian character and unimpeachable integrity, one 
in whose sincerity the entire brotherhood had the 
fullest confidence. Beginning with a reduced enroll- 
ment, the student body was gradually increased. Rigid 
economy was practiced. Considerable money was raised 


94 History of the Churches of God 


for available and permanent funds. And when Dr. 
Manchester offered his resignation (in 1904) the Board 
of Trustees coupled with its action of acceptance a 
tribute to the character, loyalty and devotion of the 
retiring president. 

The vacancy thus created was filled by the election 
of Rev. Charles I. Brown, who served in this position 
for nine years. He came to the college primarily as its 
executive head. He devoted his efforts principally to 
securing funds for the support of the institution, in 
distinction from his predecessors in the presidential 
chair, who, in addition to their financial activities, were 
also engaged in the regular teaching work of the col- 
lege. Brown had succeeded in raising the amount 
which the East Pennsylvania Eldership had assumed 
of the debt of 1894, and in doing so had given evidence 
of ability which the Board of Trustees felt could be 
used to good advantage in the wider field of securing 
contributions from the brotherhood in general. To 
this task he devoted himself with hopeful energy. He 
introduced quite a number of financial plans, most of 
which succeeded and some of which are still in use. At 
the same time he was mindful of the intellectual inter- 
ests of the school. He won favor among the churches 
and was influential in drawing students to the college. 

Rev. William Harris Guyer, the present incumbent, 
has borne the responsibilities of the president’s office 
since 1913. As a graduate of Findlay College, and 
having served as a member of its faculty, he brought 
to his new position a thorough familiarity with the 
institution whose work he was to direct. Brought up 


Educational Work 95 


in the Church, and with a successful experience in the 
ministry, he was equally familiar with the college con- 
stituency. This fellowship between Church and Col- 
lege has been cultivated wisely and with fruitful results. 
The student body has been enlarged and the character 
of its work has been maintained at a high standard. 
The college has prospered in a material way beyond 
that of any other period of its history, both in regular 
income and by special gifts. Dr. Guyer’s Christian 
character commands the confidence of the entire broth- 
erhood. He has also won a place in the favor of the 
people outside of our own communion, which brings 
him before them frequently as a public speaker. He is 
passionately fond of his books, and the results of his 
extensive reading are in evidence in all of his work, 
whether as speaker, teacher or writer. His victories 
are won by meeting difficulties with faith in God and 
in God’s people. 

Beginning forty years ago with one building and 
a small endowment, the college assets have grown to 
six buildings and an endowment of nearly $300,000. 
The magnificent college building stands in the center 
of the beautiful campus. On adjacent streets are the 
President’s Home, the Girls’ Dormitory, the Boys’ 
Dormitory, the Conservatory of Music and the Physical 
Culture Hall, the last just completed, at a cost of about 
$50,000. 

One other church school remains to be noticed— 
the Collegiate Institute at Fort Scott, Kansas. It had 
its inception in a private school started by Rev. O. A. 
Newlin, our missionary at Fort Scott, in 1901. Encour- 


96 History of the Churches of God 


aged by this effort, Newlin, who was talented, optimistic 
and aggressive, opened the Collegiate Institute the 
following year, in a good building provided by local 
citizens. He believed that this school would afford a 
fine opportunity to our young people of the southwest, 
and that their training thus secured would, in turn, 
mean much to the work of the Churches of God, 
especially in that part of the country. He had the 
approval of the General Eldership, and for seven years 
devoted himself earnestly to the arduous task which he 
had undertaken. He was succeeded by Rev. Charles 
Manchester, Rev. W. W. Richmond and Prof. J. A. 
Connor, in the order named, under whose administra- 
tions the Collegiate Institute continued until 1917, 
when its work ceased. The number of students, 
especially during the first few years, had been encour- 
aging, and the school exerted a splendid influence ~ 
locally and over our frontier mission field. Its record 
shows fifteen years of commendable work. But it had 
no endowment, and its constituency was too small 
numerically and too limited financially to provide a 
continuous and adequate support. 

In addition to what has been said about institu- 
tions of learning, it should be mentioned that the 
Elderships, for many years, have had courses of 
studies for the benefit of ministers who have not had the 
advantages of higher educational institutions. These — 
studies, which make a good ministerial course, are pur- 
sued privately, and examinations are conducted at cer- 
tain times by boards or committees of the Elderships. 


, " 


j Nh Lay LS 
i ree 








Mission Housk At ULuBArRIA, INDIA. 


CHAPTER? 21 


FOREIGN MISSIONS 


The actual beginning of our foreign missionary 
operations was in 1896, but the preliminary steps cover- 
ered a good many years prior to that date. 

The world-wide view of missions, including the 
obligation to send the gospel to heathen lands was 
officially recognized by the General Eldership at its 
first meeting, in 1845, when it adopted the following: 

“Resolved, that this Eldership form itself into a 
domestic and foreign missionary society.’’ 

A constitution was adopted, the second article of 
which provided that “the object of this society shall be 
to employ, send out and support, both domestic and 
foreign missionaries.” 

That was the program adopted at the very first 
opportunity which representatives of the general broth- 
erhood had to express themselves on the subject of 
missions. For obvious reasons the domestic part of it 
had to be carried out first. A good home base had to 
be established before foreign missionary operations 
were possible. This work had already been going on 
for twenty years, and it continued for fifty years more 
before the first foreign missionary was sent out. To 
that part of the work attention has already been given. 
Much of the record of preceding chapters is the history 
of home missions. 


97 


98 History of the Churches of God 


But the idea of doing foreign missionary work 
was not lost sight of during these years of waiting. 
The subject was frequently discussed and official 
actions were occasionally taken by the Elderships. The 
Free Baptist Church at different times made overtures 
for co-operative work on the foreign field. And while 
such co-operation never materialized, the fraternal 
fellowship and negotiations contributed to the cultiva- 
tion of the foreign missionary spirit among our people. 

The organization of the Woman’s General Mis- 
sionary Society in 1890, at the meeting of the General 
Eldership at North Bend, Iowa, was an important event 
in the history of our foreign missionary work. It was 
the natural outgrowth of the many local and _ several 
State societies which the women had organized during 
the preceding years and helped to make their organized 
activities more effective. Prospects were brighter now 
than they had ever been before for helping to answer 
the cry of a needy world across the seas. A good deal 
of money had already been collected for this purpose 
and still further efforts were made in this direction in 
order to be ready to send when some one would offer 
to go. 

It was Miss Clara Landes, an ordained minister of 
the lowa Eldership, whose offer of service for the 
foreign field was the first to be accepted. This was in 
1895, and after a special course of training she was 
sent to India in the Fall of 1896, by the Woman’s 
General Missionary Society, with the approval of the 
General Eldership. After about two years spent in 
language study and special training at the Free Baptist 


Foreign Missions 99 


Mission at Midnapore, India, she was ready to select 
a field and begin the definite work for which she had 
been sent out. Ulubaria, a subdivision of the Howrah 
district, province of Bengal, about twenty miles from 
Calcutta, was the field selected, and here she spent, in 
all, about a score of years in devoted and self-sacri- 
ficing service. 

The next missionaries to go to India were Miss 
Viola G. Hershey, of East Pennsylvania, and Rev. 
A. C. Bowers, of the West Pennsylvania Eldership, and 
his wife. They sailed in October, 1902, and reached 
Ulubaria in December. They were sent out by the Fast 
Pennsylvania Woman’s Missionary Society, in affilia- 
tion with the Societies of West Pennsylvania and Mary- 
land. This was in keeping with a constitutional pro- 
vision adopted by the General Eldership of 1902 and 
under the approval of its Board of Missions. The 
affiliation of the Societies just mentioned with the 
Woman’s General Missionary Society organized in 
1890 had not materialized, hence the occasion for this 
special provision for the sending out of these mis- 
sionaries. But it was intended only as a temporary 
provision, for the same General Eldership adopted 
plans which it was hoped would result, the following 
year, in the organization of a General Society which 
would include the Societies of all the Elderships. The 
outcome was not wholly successful. On the contrary, 
schismatic influences continued with more or less 
agitation for nearly a score of years, to the detriment 
of the missionary work at home and abroad. It is not 
necessary to enter into the details of this controversy, 


100 History of the Churches of God 


nor would it be profitable to do so if it were possible. 
The women were chiefly instrumental in the promotion 
of our foreign missionary work from its beginning and 
naturally felt that they should have a large share in its 
management. At the same time, the General Elder- 
ship, which was, and is, our highest ecclesiastical 
authority, reserves to itself “the exclusive right” to 
employ and send out missionaries (except in so far as 
that authority may be delegated to other organizations ) 
and to own. and control foreign missionary prop- 
erty. And the controversy, to express it in a few 
words, involved the lines which should determine the 
respective authority of the General Eldership, its 
Board of Missions and the Woman’s General Mission- 
ary Society. The matter was finally adjusted at the 
General Eldership of 1921 by the rather simple process 
of providing for the admission of women as delegates 
to the General Eldership and giving them a propor- 
tionate representation on its Board of Missions. While 
this action automatically brought to a close the work 
of the Woman’s General Missionary Society, it did 
not end the work of the women; it simply transferred 
their official relation to the General Eldership, where, 
as members of its Board of Missions along with the 
men, they have their share in the management of our 
missionary work, both at home and abroad. 

Miss Lydia A. Forney, Mrs. Clara M. Ritchie, 
Mrs. Mary B. Newcomer, Mrs. Anna P. Boyer, Mrs. 
EK. P. Green, Mrs. Ella Jeffries, Mrs. R. H. Bolton, 
Mrs. Chas. Manchester, Mrs. George W. Stoner, Mrs. 
D. C. Komp, Miss Clara E. Stare, Mrs. Laura Snavely 


Foreign Missions 101 


Smith, Miss Lessie Landes, Mrs. A. J. Latchaw and 
Mrs. Alice Geddes were the persons most prominent 
and active in the work of the women’s missionary 
societies. 

The misunderstandings which arose in the mis- 
sionary circles of the homeland in 1902 naturally 
extended to India. Asa result, Rev. and Mrs. Bowers 
and Miss Hershey left Ulubaria in the Fall of 1904, 
and early in 1905 selected a permanent field in the 
Bogra District of East Bengal, with the town of Bogra, 
some two hundred miles north of Calcutta, as their 
headquarters. In the Fall of 1907 Bowers left the field 
and accepted an appointment from a Baptist Mission 
in an adjoining province. This was a trying experience 
for Miss Hershey, as it left her practically alone for the 
time being. But she was not found wanting in the 
testing time. She never faltered in her loyalty and 
devotion. And through that experience, as well as 
during all of her years of service, which have now 
covered nearly a quarter of a century, she has been an 
exceptionally capable and faithful missionary of the 
cross. 

Soon after the departure of Bowers from Bogra 
Miss Leah K. Becker, of East Pennsylvania, who had 
been working in India as a missionary for nine years 
for the Christian and Missionary Alliance, came to 
Bogra and her offer of service on our field was gladly 
accepted. This was most fortunate, not only in that it 
provided a congenial companion for Miss Hershey at 
a time of special need, but also because of the persever- 
ing and fruitful service which Miss Becker has ren- 


102 History of the Churches of God 


dered as a missionary of the Churches of God from 
that time to this. She has been home twice on furlough. 

Mrs. S. M. Ager, of the Free Baptist Mission, was 
a very helpful assistant to Miss Landes on the Ulubaria 
field for nearly five years and rendered valuable service 
while the latter was home on furlough in 1906-07. 

On her return to India in 1907 Miss Landes was 
accompanied by Rev. and Mrs. A. B. Chamberlin, of 
the Iowa Eldership, two very devoted, intelligent and 
promising young people. But after three years the 
health of the former was so impaired that they found 
it necessary to return to the United States. This was 
deeply regretted, as it was felt that their services 
through a long period of years would have been of 
great value to the Mission. 

Dr. Chloe F. Hull, a young lady of excellent 
Christian character who had prepared for the medical 
profession was sent to the Ulubaria field in 1911. 
Conditions, however, were not found favorable to the 
carrying out of the plans she had in mind for medical 
work and her relation with the Mission was terminated 
by mutual consent after one year. 

In 1908 Miss Mary Witsaman, of Indiana, was 
accepted as a missionary and sailed for India in 
October. She took up her work on the Bogra field. 
She was devoted, earnest and capable, and would no 
doubt have become a successful missionary had not 
failing health required her return to the homeland in 
1912. 

The first furlough of Miss Hershey, in 1911-12, 
was marked by an event of much importance in her 


Foreign Missions 103 


life and in the foreign missionary work of the Churches 
of God. It was her marriage to Rev. Howard W. 
Cover, a young and promising minister of the East 
Pennsylvania Eldership, on October 22, 1912. A few 
days after the wedding they sailed for the Bogra mis- 
sion field, where they have been faithfully at work ever 
since, except for a furlough to the homeland in 1920-21. 
Thorough accord with the plans and purposes of the 
Churches of God, a broad and optimistic missionary 
outlook, and an untiring application to duty are char- 
acteristics which explain the success of the Rev. Mr. 
Cover on the mission field. His executive ability has 
been of special value. 

The Covers were accompanied to India in 1912 
by another young minister of the East Pennsylvania 
Eldership—Rev. Aaron FE. Myers. His unswerving 
loyalty, his recognition of his responsibility and his 
persistent application to his tasks are the elements 
which have entered into his work and made it fruitful. 
His wife, to whom he was married in India, December 
25, 1918, was Miss Louisa C. Dermott, an English 
missionary. Since then she has been numbered among 
our workers. They were in America on furlough in 
1921-22, and since their return have been at work on 
the Ulubaria field. 

In 1913 Miss Landes was married to an Anglo- 
Indian at Calcutta, India, who assumed much of the 
responsibility connected with the work, such as the 
construction of mission buildings, evangelistic work and 
conducting Bible classes. In 1918, with her husband, 
Mr. Preston A. Landes, she returned to the United 


104 History of the Churches of God 


States, very much broken in health through the 
severity of the climate and the heavy responsibilities 
of her long years of service. Her husband, while 
attending the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, was 
stricken with pneumonia, in January, 1920, which 
proved fatal. 

During the interval until the General Eldership 
took charge of the Ulubaria field and provided workers 
for it, Rev. F. E. Whisler, a missionary in that part of 
India for the Pentecostal Band looked after our inter- 
ests in a satisfactory manner. 

Special efforts were made during the closing years 
of our first century to increase our missionary force 
on the foreign field, and with good results. The 
influence of the Student Volunteer Movement, in which 
quite a number of our young people had become inter- 
ested, was a contributing factor to this success. Young 
men and women were offering themselves for the 
foreign field. More money was being raised for this 
work than ever before. The churches in general were 
stimulated and the brotherhood was gratified. ‘The 
outcome was the sending of six new missionaries to 
India within a period of less than four years. Miss 
Edith Mae Nissley sailed in 1919; Rev. and Mrs. 
Daniel L. Eckert sailed in 1920; Miss Minnie M. Leh- 
man accompanied the Covers when they returned from 
their furlough in 1921; and Rev. and Mrs. C. H. 
Lefever sailed in 1923. The Eckerts were members of 
the West Pennsylvania Eldership. The Lefevers and 
Miss Nissley and Miss Lehman were from East Penn- 
sylvania. This doubling of our force of workers on 


Foreign Missions 105 


the foreign field was an inspiration to the churches in 
the homeland. These young people were sincere and 
devoted and encouraged the hope that, under the direc- 
tion of the Master, they would be able to accomplish 
much in His service. But disappointment awaited 
them. The rigors of a new climate and the subtle dis- 
eases of a strange country made their inroads, resulting 
in the return of these six missionaries to America 
during 1924 and 1925. 

Those remaining on the field are the missionaries 
who have stood the test and have become acclimated. 
They are carrying on the work and training natives for 
increasing responsibilities, while the churches of the 
homeland are praying for the Lord of the harvest to 
send forth laborers into His harvest. 

The work done on the Ulubaria and Bogra fields 
has been similar to the pioneer work of other religious 
bodies in their foreign missionary operations. Land 
has been secured and mission buildings of different 
kinds erected. Outstations have been established at 
various points. Boys schools and girls schools have 
been opened for week-day instruction and Sunday- 
schools and church services have been conducted 
regularly. Orphan children have been looked after. 
Much work has been done from house to house in tell- 
ing the gospel story, distributing tracts and selling 
books. The opportunities presented for personal work 
at the public markets and similar places have been 
improved. The camping season has been utilized for 
evangelistic efforts in many villages. Many native 
workers have been employed to assist the missionaries. 


106 History of the Churches of God 


God has blest the efforts of these faithful servants and 
an encouraging number of men and women have been 
won for Christ, while a still greater harvest may be 
expected from the seed-sowing in the hearts of the 
boys and girls in the schools. The churches in America 
have supported the work in India with commendable 
liberality, their gifts for the support of missionaries 
and the erection of buildings aggregating many thou- 
sands of dollars. 





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CHAPTER XII. 


DOCTRINAL AND MORAL QUESTIONS 


A work of this kind would hardly be complete 
without a brief statement of the position of the 
Churches of God on doctrinal and moral questions, and 
this chapter is devoted to that purpose. 

It should be read with the reminder that it is a 
chapter in history, not theology. In other words, it is 
limited to a condensed statement of the doctrines 
believed, taught and practiced and the moral issues sup- 
ported, without any arguments for the positions main- 
tained. And being, therefore, merely a statement of 
historical facts as to our position on doctrinal and moral 
questions, the purpose can be served best by exact 
quotations from the records. 

In 1849 Winebrenner published a “History of All 
the Religious Denominations in the United States.” It 
is a large book of about nine hundred pages, for which 
the histories of the various religious bodies were 
written by leading men in their respective denomina- 
tions. Winebrenner wrote the “History of the Church 
of God” for this volume, and in it he states what the 
Church believes. For obvious reasons his is the most 
valuable doctrinal statement of the early years of our 
history, and as the book in which it appears has long 
since been out of print, it is presented herewith, as a 
matter of historical interest and importance. Under the 


107 


108 History of the Churches of God 


third heading of his history, ““The Faith and Practice of 
the Church of God,” he says: 

“The Church of God has no authoritative constitu- 
tion, ritual, creed, catechism, book of discipline, or 
church standard, but the Bible. The Bible she believes 
to be the only creed, discipline, church standard, or 
test-book, which God ever intended his church to have. 
Nevertheless, it may not be inexpedient, pro bono pub- 
lico, to exhibit a short manifesto, or declaration, show- 
ing her views, as to what may be called leading matters 
of faith, experience and practice. 

“1. She believes the Bible, or the canonical books 
of the Old and New Testament to be the word of God, 
a revelation from God to man, and the only authorita- 
tive rule of faith and practice. 

“2. She believes in one Supreme God, consisting 
of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and that these three 
are co-equal and co-eternal. 

“3. She believes in the fall and depravity of man; 
that is to say, that man by nature is destitute of the 
favor and image of God. 

“4. She believes in the redemption of man 
through the atonement, or vicarious sacrifice of Jesus 
Christ. 

“5. She believes in the gift and office-work of the 
Holy Spirit; that is, in the enlightening, regenerating, 
and sanctifying influence and power of the Spirit. 

“6. She believes in the free, moral agency of man; 
that he has moral ability, because commanded to repent 
and believe, in order to be saved; and that the doctrine 


Doctrinal and Moral Questions 109 


of unconditional election and reprobation, has no 
foundation in the oracles of God. 

“7, She believes that man is justified by faith in 
Christ, and not by the works of the law, or by works 
of his own righteousness. 

“8. She believes in the necessity of regeneration 
or the new birth; or, in the change of man’s moral 
nature, after the image of God, by the influence and 
power of the word and Spirit of God, through faith in 
Christ Jesus. 

“Q,. She believes in three positive ordinances of 
perpetual standing in the church, viz., Baptism, Feet- 
washing, and the Lord’s Supper. 

“10. She believes two things essential to the 
validity of baptism, viz., faith and immersion; that faith 
should always precede immersion; and that where 
either is wanting, there can be no scriptural baptism. 

“11. She believes that the ordinance of feet- 
washing, that is, the literal washing of the saints’ feet, 
according to the words and example of Christ, is 
obligatory upon all Christians, and ought to be observed 
by all the churches of God. 

“12. She believes that the Lord’s ‘Supper should 
be often administered, and to be consistent, to Chris- 
tians only, in a sitting posture, and always in the 
evening. 

“13. She believes in the institution of the Lord’s 
day, or Christian Sabbath, as a day of rest and religious 
worship. 

“14. She believes that the reading and preaching 
of God’s word, the singing of psalms and hymns, and 


110 History of the Churches of God 


spiritual songs, and the offering up of prayers, are 
ordained of God, and ought to be regularly and de- 
voutly observed by all the people and churches of God. 

“15. She believes in the propriety and utility of 
holding fast-days, experience meetings, anxious meet- 
ings, camp meetings, and other special meetings of 
united and protracted efforts for the edification of the 
church and the conversion of sinners. 

“16. She believes that the gospel ministry, Sab- 
bath schools, education, the religious press, the Bible, 
missionary, temperance, and all other benevolent causes, 
ought to be heartily and liberally supported. 

“17. She believes that the church ought to relieve 
and take care of her own poor saints, superannuated 
ministers, widows and orphans. 

“18. She believes that the manufacture, traffic, 
and use of ardent spirits, as a beverage or common 
drink, is injurious and immoral, and ought to be 
abandoned. 

“19, She believes the system or institution of 
involuntary slavery to be impolitic and unchristian. 

“20. She believes that all civil wars are unholy 
and sinful, and in which the saints of the Most High 
ought never to participate. 

“21. She believes that civil governments are 
ordained of God for the general good; that Christians 
ought to be subject to the same in all things, except 
what is manifestly unscriptural ; and that appeals to the 
law, out of the church, for justice, and the adjustments 
of civil rights, are not inconsistent with the principles 
and duties of the Christian religion. 


Doctrinal and Moral Questions 111 


“22. She believes in the necessity of a virtuous 
and holy life, and that Christ will save those only who 
obey him. 

“23. She believes in the visibility, unity, sanctity, 
universality, and perpetuity of the Church of God. 

“24. She believes in the personal coming and 
reign of Jesus Christ. 


“25. She believes in the resurrection of the dead, 
‘both of the just and the unjust’; that the resurrection 
of the just will precede the resurrection of the unjust; 
that the first will take place at the beginning, and the 
second at the end of the millennium. 


“26. She believes in the creation of new heavens 
and a new earth. 


“27. She believes in the immortality of the soul; 
in a universal and eternal judgment; and in future 
and everlasting rewards and punishments.” 

Each of these paragraphs is followed by a number 
of scriptural quotations. 


Seventy-six years later, the General Eldership of 
our centennial year (1925), in session in Harrisburg, 
Pennsylvania, adopted a doctrinal statement which is 
given herewith. It was occasioned principally by the 
violent attacks on the Bible which were being made by 
the destructive critics, commonly called modernists. It 
was considered an opportune time for our highest 
ecclesiastical body, speaking in a representative capacity 
for the brotherhood at large, to place itself on record 
with a statement embodying historical facts and expres- 
sing its present attitude in defense of the word of God. 


112 History of the Churches of God 


DoctTRINAL STATEMENT OF 1925 


“Whereas, the Bible is our only rule of faith and 
practice, and our profession of loyalty is that ‘we earn- 
estly contend for the faith which was once for all 
delivered unto the saints;’ and 

‘“Whereas, we are now at the end of the first cen- 
tury of our work as a religious body and we are about 
to begin the work of the second; therefore, 

“Resolved, That we consider this an opportune 
time for the General Eldership, as representing the 
brotherhood of the Churches of God in North 
America, to put itself on record in the following state- 
ment—a statement which we believe to be true to our 
historical position as recorded by John Winebrenner in 
1849, in his ‘History of Religious Denominations in 
the United States,’ and clear as to our attitude toward 
the modernism of the present; 

“We believe that the Bible is the divinely inspired 
word of God; that the inspiration of its writers enabled 
them to record truth without error; and that it is our 
only and all-sufficient rule of faith and practice. 

“We believe in one supreme God—the Father, Son 
and Holy Ghost—and that they are co-equal and co- 
eternal. 

“We believe in the miraculous conception, the 
virgin birth, the vicarious sacrifice, the bodily resurrec- 
tion, the triumphant ascension and the second coming 
of Jesus Christ. We believe in his deity—that he was, 
and is, God the Son as well as the Son of God. 

“We believe in the gift and work of the Holy 
Spirit. 


Doctrinal:and Moral Questions 113 


“We believe that God made man by an original 
specific act of creation according to Gen. 1:26, 27; 5:1; 
OS Gee esas. 10073 le Cor ay ee Colao 210: lanies 
aoe 

“We believe in the fall of man, and that his only 
possible redemption is through the atonement of Christ. 

“We believe that man is justified by faith in 
Christ, and not by the works of the law, or by works 
of his own righteousness. 

“We believe in the free moral agency of man, as 
opposed to his unconditional election or reprobation, 
i. e., that a man must accept Jesus as his Savior, and of 
his own free will continue in the goodness of God to 
be numbered with the elect. 

“We believe that only those who have been born 
again by the word and Spirit, and who continue to 
manifest repentance toward God and faith toward our 
Lord Jesus Christ, and to live virtuous and obedient 
lives will be saved. 

“We believe that the sanctification of the person 
(personality) is instantaneous and simultaneous with 
regeneration; that the sanctification of the nature, is a 
gradual growth in grace and truth. 

“We believe in Baptism, Feet-washing andthe 
Lord’s Supper as church ordinances. 

“We believe in Christian unity, in the Lord’s Day 
as a time of rest and worship, and that civil govern- 
ments are ordained of God. 

“We believe in the immortality of the soul (that 
when the believer departs from the body he is con- 
sciously at home with the Lord). 


114 History of the Churches of God 


“We believe in the resurrection of the dead, in a 
judgment following the resurrection, and in everlasting 
rewards and punishments.” 


It will be noticed that the foregoing statements are 
substantially the same from a doctrinal viewpoint, thus 
showing that our people have held fast to the faith of 
the fathers without wavering. A few of the para- 
graphs in Winebrenner’s statement—from 14 to 20 
inclusive—pertain to church methods and public ques-. 
tions, and are not included in the statement of 1925, 
which is strictly doctrinal. On the other hand, the 
latter statement emphasizes the scriptural account of 
man’s creation and the doctrines of Christ’s miraculous 
conception, his virgin birth and his deity, because these 
were the doctrines against which modernism was 
making its special attack. 


The Churches of God in North America have 
always been on the right side of every moral question 
and reform movement. Three outstanding examples— 
slavery, war, and temperance—may be cited as evidence 
of this fact. Our people were opposed to slavery from 
the beginning of their history. And at the meeting of 
the General Eldership in 1845, which was their first 
opportunity to officially express their sentiments, their 
representatives placed the following action on record: 


SLAVERY 
“Whereas, it is the duty of the ministers of God 
to testify against sin in every form and place; there- 
fore, 
“1. Resolved, That it is the unequivocal and 


Doctrinal and Moral Questions 115 


decided opinion of this General Eldership of the 
Church of God, that the system of involuntary slavery, 
as it exists in the United States of North America, is a 
flagrant violation of the natural, inalienable and most 
precious rights of man, and utterly inconsistent with 
the spirit, laws and profession of the Christian 
religion. 

“2. Resolved, That we feel ourselves authorized 
by the highest authority, and called upon by the 
strongest ties and obligations, to caution our brethren 
in the Church of God, against supporting and counte- 
nancing, either directly or indirectly, the said iniquitous 
institution of involuntary slavery; and should any of 
our ministers or members ever become guilty of this 
great and crying sin, we do most earnestly and relig- 
iously recommend and advise, that all such be excom- 
municated, or cast out of the church, and denied the 
right of Christian fellowship among us.” 


This attitude on what was then the greatest of all 
national questions was constantly kept before the 
people. The preachers denounced slavery from the 
pulpits. The congregations sang their anti-slavery 
sentiments from the old hymn book. The question was 
discussed through the church paper by the editor and 
contributors. The Elderships passed denunciatory 
resolutions from year to year. And finally, at the out- 
break of the Civil War, our ministers and laymen were 
among the first to offer themselves for the most exact- 
ing service which a country can ask of its citizens. 


116 History of the Churches of God 


WarR 


The General Eldership of 1845 took no action on 
the subject of war. Winebrenner’s statement of 1849 
(paragraph 20), is somewhat ambiguous, due to his 
use of the modifying word “civil.” It leaves room for 
an inference which was hardly intended—that other 
wars may be right, while “all civil wars are unholy and 
sinful.” But any confusion which might arise as to the 
theory of our people on this subject is clarified by their 
practice. For it so happened that the first war to follow 
this statement was the Civil War, in which, as pre- 
viously stated, our ministers and laymen were among 
the first to engage. And the General Eldership of 1863 
(the only session of that body held during the Civil 
War) adopted clear and unmistakable resolutions in 
support of the Union cause, its armies and those who 
were engaged therein. Such has been the attitude of 
our people with reference to all the wars waged during 
our history, up to and including the World War. They 
have never taken the position of “non-resistants” or 
“conscientious objectors.” ‘They have always done 
their part in a spirit of heroism. This does not mean 
that they have warlike tendencies. On the contrary, 
like all right-thinking people they favor peace and 
abhor war. The General Eldership of 1925, in a strong 
pronouncement on world peace, said: “We are in favor 
of joining hands with all the great forces in America 
which are working for the principles that promote 
peace and lessen the likelihood of war.” But our 
people believe that “civil governments are ordained of 
God”; that it is the right of a government to call upon 


Doctrinal and Moral Questions 117 


its citizens for such service as may be necessary for its 
defense and preservation; and that it is their duty to 
be subject to “the powers that be.” 

At the first meeting of the General Eldership (in 
1845), the following position was taken on the third 
of the three great questions mentioned : 


TEMPERANCE 

“1. Resolved, That we are grateful to Almighty 
God for his goodness in smiling upon the efforts made 
to promote the Temperance cause. 

“2. Resolved, That in our opinion the time has 
fully come, when men in every condition of life, who 
have the welfare of the human family at heart, should 
come forward and sign the pledge of Tora, Apsvi- 
NENCE, and strive to advance the noble cause of temper- 
ance by precept and example. 


“3. Resolved, That the friends of temperance 
remember, that the cause in which they are engaged is 
a cause whose advocates and supporters are of no par- 
ticular creed; that its aim is to reform the life, and fit 
men for the society of the good here, and, under God, 
for the society of the blessed hereafter; and therefore, 
they should take care not to ‘fall out by the way,’ but 
to join in. one united effort to do something worthy of 
their day, which shall cause their children to rise up 
and call them blessed. 


“4. Resolved, That we are sorry that there are 
yet ministers of the gospel in this country who are so 
far influenced: by selfishness as to refuse to give their 
views and influence in favor of a cause like that of 


i18 History of the Churches of God 


temperance, which is so closely allied to that of Chris- 
tianity. 

“5S. Resolved, That we consider it inconsistent for 
professors of Christianity in any way to countenance 
the traffic in intoxicating drink; and especially to 
assist the rumseller to procure a license by signing his 
petition, which is nothing less than signing the death 
warrant of many poor inebriates. 

“6. Resolved, That we consider the traffic in 
intoxicating liquors as a drink, always sinful and 
demoralizing in its results; and that no man is entitled 
to membership in the Church of God who is engaged 
inhitys 

It will be noticed that this was an advanced posi- 
tion for that early day, even when taken by a religious 
body. But it has always been consistently maintained. 
As the years have come and gone our people have been 
represented in practically every movement against the 
rum traffic. Their influence has been felt in the numer- 
ous temperance societies; in the moral suasion move- 
ment with its pledge-signing ; in the Prohibition party ; 
in the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union; in the 
Anti-Saloon League. They have always opposed the 
license system, whether high or low; they have fought 
for local option, for state prohibition, and finally helped 
to put the Eighteenth Amendment into the Federal 
Constitution, and are now helping to enforce it. 

What has been said of the attitude of the Churches 
of God on the liquor question, applies to all other 
questions, local and general, involving a moral issue. 
Our people have always recognized the fact that the 


Doctrinal and Moral Questions 119 


only hope for human salvation is in the preaching of 
the gospel as the direct mission of the church, and have 
devoted themselves to this as their supreme task. But 
they have also felt it to be their duty to oppose the 
agencies which hinder this work and support the organ- 
izations which promote it. And with these motives 
they have tried to discharge the duties of Christian 
citizenship. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


OUR CENTENNIAL FORWARD MOVEMENT 


Our historical journey has now brought us to the 
last quarter of our first century—1900 to 1925. 

The student of these pages has noticed that the 
principal growth of our work has been in a westerly 
direction, between the place of its beginning in eastern” 
Pennsylvania and the Missouri river, and that it has 
been confined chiefly to the same latitude as that of the 
state in which it started. This fact is explained by 
the statement, already made, that our church extension 
followed the emigration of our people from Pennsyl- 
vania and Maryland, by far the greater number of 
whom settled in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa. 
Here, then, the most substantial church work was 
established. Missionary zeal and effort advanced the 
cause to the north and the south of this latitude, and 
also beyond the Mississippi to the west and the south- 
west, but not to the same extent, nor with the same 
substantial elements of permanency. 

To the first years of this period belong the difficul- 
ties growing out of the inauguration of our foreign 
missionary operations and the lack of harmony in the 
homeland in the management and support of this great 
enterprise. This created a situation which naturally 
militated against aggressive and successful work along 
other lines of endeavor. And this was felt most in the 


120 


Our Centennial Forward Movement 121 


older and stronger Elderships just mentioned, for it 
was here that most of the missionary workers and sup- 
porters were to be found. 

However, these years were by no means barren of 
results. Along with the missionary difficulties came the 
world-wide missionary vision and the. more abundant 
church life which such a vision always produces. For 
the first time we were assuming, albeit in a very small 
measure, a share of responsibility for the world’s evan- 
gelization, and the reaction was stimulating. It gavea 
new tone to preaching and a fresh vigor to church 
activities. The results were witnessed in gracious 
revivals in many places. These were a spiritual bless- 
ing to the membership of the churches and the souls 
saved and fellowship increased our numerical strength. 
Some churches were organized in new places, particu- 
larly on the frontier, and church building projects 
were carried out to a limited extent, both on the older 
and the newer fields of labor. 

But there was a growing feeling of anxious 
unrest among the brotherhood—a feeling that some- 
thing more than the ordinary routine of church work 
ought to be done. This feeling was prompted by the 
manifest fact that our accomplishments were not meas- 
uring up to the standard of a reasonable expectation. 
The end of our first century was drawing near. Our 
history contained pages of heroism and self-sacrificing 
devotion than which no brighter record can be found 
anywhere. This was gratifying and inspiring. But the 
visible results, when measured by the space of almost a 
hundred years, were less heartening. We must double 


122 History of the Churches of God 


our diligence, was the feeling, toward a more pros- 
perous climax in these closing years. 

It so happened that at this time a similar feeling 
prevailed in many other religious bodies—a sentiment 
in favor of attempting something above the ordinary. 
This sentiment was being crystallized into the idea of a 
forward movement, whether under this particular name 
or some other, and a few such movements had already 
been started when, in 1917, our General Eldership met 
at Wharton, Ohio. This helped to determine the 
method by which we should endeavor to do what it was 
felt ought to be done. Only eight years of the century 
remained, so that the official plans adopted by the 
General Eldership were put into operation under the 
name of our “Centennial Forward Movement.” ‘This 
movement was to continue during the eight years and 
close with a centennial celebration in Harrisburg, the 
place where our work had its beginning in 1825. 

The following committee, selected by the General 
Eldership, had charge of this Movement during the 
entire eight years: W. N. Yates, D. D., Chairman; 
S. G. Yahn, D. D., Secretary; W. H. Guyer, D. D., 
Charles T. Fox, Ph. D., L. A. Luckenbill and Mrs. 
George W. Stoner. 

This committee prepared and the General Elder- 
ship adopted a program for the Centennial Forward 
Movement. That this program might become familiar 
for general use, it was epitomized so as to be embraced 
in the following principal points: , 

“Eight years of spiritual and material advance- 
ment. 


Our Centennial Forward Movement 123 


“Closer consecration to Christ and deeper devotion 
to his work. 

“An increase in the membership of the churches 
according to the New Testament plan of every member 
finding his brother and bringing him to Christ. 


“An increase of one-third in the membership of 
our Sunday-schools and Christian Endeavor societies. 


“The local church the unit of missionary organi- 
zation and activity. 


“Adding 500 new names each year to the sub- 
scription list of The Church Advocate. 


“Putting our literature into every Church of God 
Sunday-school. 

“Raising an average of $35,000 a year for eight 
years for missionary, educational and publishing in- 
terests. 

“Adoption of budget system, Duplex Envelope, 
and every member canvass by local churches.” 


Rev. J. L. Updegraph, then pastor of the church 
of God at Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, was selected 
as Field Secretary, to devote his whole time to this 
Forward Movement. He located at Findlay, Ohio, and 
entered upon the duties of his responsible and laborious 
position. He carried the spirit of the Forward Move- 
ment to all parts of the General Eldership territory, 
and explained its meaning to the people. He came in 
touch with all pastors and helped them with wise 
counsel. His tactful messages awakened a new sense 
of responsibility in the churches and provided helpful 
suggestions for improvement in their methods of work. 


124 History. of the Churches of God 


Eldership sessions and conventions also profited by his 
presence and leadership. 

In addition to the work of the Field Secretary, 
several special days were observed by the churches each 
year and a large amount of promotional literature was 
sent out to aid the pastors and their people in carrying 
out the Forward Movement program. 

Financially, the success of the Forward Movement 
was highly gratifying. Starting with an annual goal of 
$35,000, the amount raised averaged more than fifty 
thousand dollars a year for the eight years. 

The goal of five hundred new subscriptions for 
The Church Advocate was reached and passed every 
year, so that instead of the four thousand subscriptions 
asked for, more than five thousand six hundred were 
secured. 

There was an encouraging growth in Sunday- 
school and Christian Endeavor work, and in the intro- 
duction of Sunday-school literature, but not much 
substantial increase in church membership. 

In other respects the results cannot be estimated, 
for the goals were of a spiritual character. 

On the whole, the conclusion is justified that our 
Forward Movement was a marked success, not only 
in the results attained in striving for fixed goals, but 
also in the fine spirit which these efforts cultivated. It 
was the spirit which causes a body of people to avoid 
wasting time on little things by giving them a vision 
of bigger and better things to engross their thoughts 
and efforts. 

The facts and figures gathered by the Statistical 


Our Centennial Forward Movement 125 


Secretary during the eight years of our Forward 
Movement were naturally of more than ordinary 
interest. And it seems proper that a few of these 
should be recorded here as showing our statistical 
standing at the end of our first century. The report 
for the year 1924, presented to the General Eldership 
of 1925, shows these items: ministers, 439; churches, 
481; membership, 27,649; church-houses, 383, with an 
estimated value of $2,171,932; parsonages, 113, with 
an estimated value of $389,750; Sunday-schools, 398; 
membership, 40,821; Christian Endeavor societies 
(Senior, Intermediate and Junior) 242; membership, 
8,849. 

The Elderships raised $47,268.51 during the last 
year of the Forward Movement on the General Elder- 
ship budget, and the total amount raised by the Elder- 
ships during the same time for all purposes was 
$433,663.47. These amounts were exclusive of gifts 
made directly by individuals for educational and mis- 
sionary purposes. ‘The larger of these individual gifts 
were from Mr. D. M. Bare, a wealthy paper manufac- 
turer of Roaring Spring, Pennsylvania, amounting, 
during the last year of the Forward Movement alone, 
to more than sixty thousand dollars. These, with the 
smaller gifts from others of less resources gave much 
encouragement to the brotherhood and _ substantial 
support to the enterprises of the General Eldership. 
The total amount raised for general purposes during the 
last year of the Forward Movement, including special 
gifts, was $127,797.46. And the total amount for the 
eight years was $563,486.74. 


126 History of the Churches of God 


It should be recalled that the session of the General 
Eldership of May 17 to 22, 1917, which inaugurated 
the Centennial Forward Movement, was coincident with 
our country’s entrance into the World War, the official 
action for which had been taken by the Congress at 
Washington the first week in April. This war, the most 
stupendous in all history, had been going on for nearly 
three years, and continued for a year and a half longer. 
As usual, this period was marked by a raising of mate- 
rial standards and a lowering of spiritual ideals. On 
the one hand prices, wages and benevolent gifts were 
greatly increased. On the other hand, worldliness 
flourished, social restraints were ignored, and in the 
sorrows of war many tried to find surcease in sin. 
These are invariable effects of war, and help to explain 
why the material success of our Forward Movement 
was greater than its spiritual growth. 

The General Eldership met in Harrisburg, Penn- 
sylvania, from May 21st to 26th, 1925, for its regular 
quadrennial session and to celebrate the Centennial of 
the Churches of God in North America. This marked 
the end, officially, of our Forward Movement, and also 
of our first century as a religious body. The great 
changes wrought by the passing years of the century 
were in evidence in the city. They were seen in its 
population of more than eighty-two thousand people; 
in its railroad and electric lines; its numerous industrial 
establishments; its splendid school system; its chari- 
table institutions; and its nearly one hundred churches, 
six of them being churches of God. It is a fine illustra- 
tion of the century’s progress, for this capital city of a 


Our Centennial Forward Movement 127 


great state is none other than the developed country 
town of 1825, with less than four thousand people, with 
neither railroad nor canal, and with only four churches. 
And the changes here are typical of the changes every- 
where which show the marvelous scientific progress of 
the century, to say nothing about the achievements in 
literature and art. To speak of the automobile and the 
airplane, of X-rays and radium, of wireless telegraphy 
and the radio is but to begin a long list of inventions 
and discoveries which were not even dreamt of a hun- 
dred years ago. 

This session of the General Eldership was held in 
the bethel of the historic First Church, which, as we 
have seen in chapter six, changed its location from Mul- 
berry street to Fourth street in 1854. The business was 
transacted with efficiency and all of the deliberations 
were characterized by a blessed spirit of Christian fel- 
lowship. There was no indication of a lessening of 
effort or a weakening of determination. On the con- 
trary, the General Eldership unanimously adopted the 
final report of the Centennial Committee, which con- 
tained plans for a New Century Movement, that the 
good work of the preceding eight years might go on 
without interruption. 

The Centennial celebration was conducted in con- 
nection with the General Eldership session, the Sunday 
and evenings being set apart for that purpose. The 
opening sermon was preached on Wednesday evening 
by Rev. J. L. Updegraph, the Field Secretary and 
retiring Speaker of the General Eldership. Rev. C. H. 
Grove, D. D., Editor of Sunday School literature, 


128 History of the Churches of God 


delivered an address Thursday evening on Church Lit- 
erature, followed by an address on Missions by Mrs. 
J. L. Updegraph. On Friday evening Rev. W. H. Guyer, 
D. D., President of Findlay College, spoke on Education 
and Mrs. Geo. W. Stoner delivered an address on Tem- 
perance. Rev. F. W. McGuire preached the Doctrinal 
Sermon on Saturday evening. Christian Endeavor and 
Sunday Schools were the subjects for Monday even- 
ing, the addresses being delivered, respectively, by 
Revs. C. W. Crisman and W. T. Turpin. 

This important epoch-in our history and the plans 
for its proper observance had been well advertised 
through our periodicals and the local press, and the 
wide-spread interest thus created resulted in a large 
attendance. More than a thousand persons registered 
on the week days. ‘They came from as far west as 
Minnesota and Oklahoma and from Florida in the 
South. And this was but the beginning of the still 
larger attendance at the services on the Sabbath. 

Saturday afternoon was devoted to a sight-seeing 
tour, under the efficient direction of Brother C. G. 
Miller, Treasurer of the General Eldership, when sev- 
eral hundred people in automobiles visited places in and 
around Harrisburg of historic interest to the Churches 
of God. 

Chestnut Street Auditorium, the largest meeting- 
place in the city, was secured for the forenoon and 
afternoon services on Sunday, May 24th. It was filled to 
its capacity and many were not able to gain admittance. 
The Centennial Sermon was preached in the forenoon, 
by Rev. S. G. Yahn, D. D., from Philippians 2:17— 


Our Centennial Forward Movement 129 


subject, “A Century of Sacrificial Service.” Revs. 
M. D. Kidwell, A. B., C. F. Rogers, J. W. Whisler, 
A. M., and J. E. McColley assisted in this service. The 
afternoon meeting was in charge of Dr. W. N. Yates, 
assisted by Rev. W. E. Turner and Rev. J. R. Bucher, 
Th. M. The principal address was by Dr. Martin G. 
Brumbaugh, a former Governor of Pennsylvania. The 
other addresses of the afternoon were by Mayor George 
A. Hoverter, Rev. L. A. Luckenbill of Indiana, and 
Rev. Samuel McCrea Cavert of New York. The latter 
represented the Federal Council of the Churches of 
Christ in America. 

While the Chestnut Street Auditorium was selected 
for the main services of the celebration solely because 
of its size, the selection completed a coincidence of 
sentimental value. This Auditorium stands beside 
the Salem Reformed Church, mentioned in an earlier 
chapter. Thus it came to pass that the end of our first 
century of history was celebrated at the exact place of 
its beginning. The hundreds of our people who came 
to the Centennial celebration stood at the exact spot 
from which Winebrenner and his followers, a hundred 
years before, had turned from the closed doors of the 
sanctuary to hold their Sunday morning service at the 
river side—two squares distant. 

The solemn and impressive communion service of 
Sunday evening was held in the bethel of the historic 
First Church, in charge of the pastor, Rev. Thomas 
M. Funk, A. M. The scriptural address was given by 
Dr. Charles T. Fox, Dean of Findlay College, after 
which the ordinances of God’s house were observed 


130 History of the Churches of God 


by those who, though from widely separated parts of 
the country, were close together in the fellowship of a 
common faith. It was a fitting close of a blessed day, 
a day made all the more precious by the realization that 
many thousands of the brotherhood who could not 
come to Harrisburg were carrying out their part of 
the general program by observing this great anniver- 
sary in their home churches. 

Thus we crossed the dividing line between the 
centuries, praising God for the heritage of the past, and 
rededicating ourselves to the unfinished tasks and the 
unlimited opportunities of His church. 


yale 


pete tes 


= 


SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS 


CHAPTER I. 


How many years does this history cover? 

Where does it begin? 

What were the material conditions in eastern 
Pennsylvania at that time? 

With what nationality are we particularly con- 
cerned? 

From where had their ancestors come? 

Why did they come? 

What was the state of religion in this part of the 
country a hundred years ago? 

What evangelistic movements were in progress? 

What does Dr. Nevin say of the religious condi- 
tion of the German Reformed Church? 

What was the attitude of this Church toward the 
revival movement ? 


CHAPTER II. 


When and where was John Winebrenner born? 
To what church did his parents belong? 
What can you say of his early religious training 
and his desire to enter the gospel ministry? 
Where did he receive his education? 
When and where did he experience the new birth? 
When and where was he ordained to the Christian 
ministry ? 
131 


132 


he ih ad aN) 


History of the Churches of God 


Where was his first pastorate and when did it 
begin? 

What salary was he to receive? 

What impresses you most in his personal testi- 
mony ? 

CHAPTER III. 

What was the spiritual condition of the Reformed 
churches to which Winebrenner ministered ? 

What was the character of his ministry? 

How did it affect these churches? 

What was the final outcome? 

What did Winebrenner and his followers do when 
they found the Reformed church-houses closed 
against them? 

What was the fundamental cause of Winebren- 
ner’s separation from the German Reformed 
Church? 

What important material improvement stands to 
the credit of his first pastorate? 

What important event in his domestic life 
occurred during this pastorate? 

What state of mind and soul does his birthday 
meditation at this time indicate? 


CHAPTER IV. 

What success attended the evangelistic work of 
Winebrenner and his co-laborers immediately 
after their separation from the German Re- 
formed Church? 

How did the organization of the first churches 
come about? 


Suggestive Questions | 133 


When and where was the first church organized ? 

What changes in Winebrenner’s doctrinal views 
occurred at this time? 

What conclusions did he reach as to the name, 
officers and ordinances of the church? 

By what course of study did he reach these con- 
clusions ? 

When, where and by whom was Winebrenner 
baptized ? 

Why was it necessary to organize churches 
instead of uniting with denominations already 
established ? 

When, where and why was the first Eldership 
organized? 


CHAPTER V. 


What churches were organized during the first 
decade of our history? 

Name the most prominent ministers of that period. 

What was the nature of their evangelistic work? 

State what you can of the pioneer work in Ohio 
and western Pennsylvania prior to 1840, and 
name the leading missionaries. 

Explain the relation between emigration and 
church extension. 

Describe the advance into Indiana, Illinois and 
Iowa from 1840 to 1850, and also the expansion 
of the home base during this time. 

Name the leading pioneer missionaries in this 
work and describe their hardships. 


134 


10. 
Li; 


pest 


History of the Churches of God 


When were Elderships organized in Ohio, West 
Pennsylvania, Indiana and Iowa? 

When and where was the General Eldership 
organized and how was it constituted ? 

What is the character of its work? 

What was the aggregate number of ministers, 
churches and church members at the end of the 
first quarter of the century of our history? 


CHAPTER VI. 


What gratifying results were in evidence by 1850? 

What forward step was taken by the original 
church in 1854? 

What controversy occurred in connection with this 
church and what was the final outcome? 

State what you can of Winebrenner’s final mes- 
sage, his death and his funeral. 

What was the effect of the Civil War on church 
work? 

Speak of the manifestation of missionary zeal 
following the War. 

What can be said of the work in Texas and in 
Chicago? 

Tell of the splendid achievements between 1870 
and 1875 in spite of failures. 


CHAPTER VII. 


What is said of Winebrenner’s personal appear- 
ance? 

Tell what you can of his domestic relations ? 

How is his home life revealed in letters—to wife, 
daughter and father? 


ON 


~~ 


10. 


Suggestive Questions | 135 


What was the predominating characteristic of 
Winebrenner’s preaching? 

What were his other responsibilities ? 

What particular scripture did his life exemplify, 
and why? 

What was his attitude with reference to debates? 

Give the substance of Mackey’s testimonial to 
Winebrenner. 

What was Winebrenner’s appraisement of his 
own life and work? 


CHAPTER VIII. 


Name the Elderships organized from 1850 to 
1896 inclusive. 

How did the Maine Eldership originate? 

Why was the German Eldership established, and 
with what result ? 

How has the organization of the Elderships and 
the General Eldership been developed? 


-When and why was the change made from 


“Church” to “Churches” ? 

When was the change made from an Annual 
License for preachers to a Life Certificate? 

When was the centennial of the Sunday-school 
movement observed ? 

Speak of the Young People’s Society of Christian 
Endeavor. 

Where and by whom was missionary work car- 
ried on between 1875 and 1900? 

Name some of the prominent ministers of this 
period in the older Elderships. 


136 


ahs 
ws. 
13. 


Ci eee ED ote 


10. 


A 


N 


History of the Churches of God 


What were some of the results of their work? 

When and how was our semi-centennial observed ? 

What have we done for the freedmen? for the 
Indians? for foreigners in America and the 
people of their nationality in Europe? 


CHAPTER IX. 


When was The Gospel Publisher established ? 

How long did it continue? 

Name its three editors in the order of their service. 

When, and under what name was it revived? 

Name the editors of The Church Advocate in the 
order in which they served? 

Name our Sunday-school periodicals and give the 
date when each was established. 

What was the experience of the early years with 
a printing establishment? 

When and where was our first Publishing House 
established ? 

What improvements were made on this property 
in 1914? 

When was the Publishing House changed to its 
present location? 

What is its financial condition? 


CHAPTER X. 


What was the attitude of our people toward edu- 
cational work in the early years? 

Why did they maintain this attitude? 

What position did the General Eldership take on 
this subject at its first meeting? 


ee 


Y 


on 


Suggestive Questions 137 


Mention the unsuccessful efforts to establish 
schools under church control. 

Why did these efforts fail? 

What two important events occurred in 1881? 

Speak of the successful work of Barkeyville 
Academy. . 

When and under what circumstances was Findlay 
College opened? 

Name, in order, the presidents of Findlay College. 

Speak of the material growth of the college. 

What can you say of the Collegiate Institute at 
Fort Scott, Kansas? 

What of Eldership courses of studies? 


CHAPTER XI. 


What action did the first General Eldership take 
on the subject of missions? 

When was our foreign missionary work inaugu- 
rated? 

What are our two principal fields in India? 

Name the missionaries sent to India from 1896 
to 1923. 

How many have returned? 

Briefly describe the work of the women’s mis- 
sionary organizations and name some of the 
leaders in this work. 

How was the foreign missionary problem solved 
by the General Eldership of 1921? 

What influence did the Student Volunteer Move- 
ment have on our work? 


138 


History of the Churches of God 


What is the character of the work being done 
on the foreign field? 


What are the visible results ? 


CHAPTER XII. 


Discuss Winebrenner’s doctrinal statement of 
1849, each paragraph suggesting its own ques- 
tion. 

Discuss the doctrinal statement of the General 
Eldership of 1925 in the same manner. 

What was the principal reason for the adoption 
of the latter statement ? 

What was the position of the Church of God on 
the slavery question? 

Define the position of the Churches of God on the 
subject of war? 

State the attitude of the Churches of God toward 
temperance and prohibition. 

Through what means has this attitude been made 
effective? 

What is the attitude of the Churches of God 
toward all other questions involving a moral 
issue? 

CHAPTER XIII. 


Speak of church extension and growth from 1900 
to 1925. 


What important movement was inaugurated by 
the General Eldership of 1917? 


How long did it continue? 


10. 


Suggestive Questions 139 


What were the principal points in the program of 
this movement ? 

Who was selected as Field Secretary? 

State what you can of the success of this move- 
ment. 

How was it affected by the World War? 

Describe the growth of Harrisburg by comparing 
the city of 1925 with the town of 1825. 

Under what circumstances did the General Elder- 
ship of 1925 meet? 

State what you can of the celebration of our cen- 
tennial in connection with this meeting of the 
General Eldership. 





INDEX 


PLOT PDO Pat ert Ee areal OR Ceecte eae 70 
Pete Pe LPs eater ee eran re tr ah OY Os 71 
EMLICL SOL Meera e id ah ie cia Bl atalre atts is teete les 71 
Annual License, changed to Life Certificate.... 68 
Arkansas Eldership (Colored) J. 0........... 66 
EXMIMCEINIAI ON VV ei erat ceeds nretieie ss oie ee 71 
J eG TIES eG Bas, PON ae So a Met ge ep eri Sink ari re 102 
UC MDN ATE Aa Od os IA Foal leg a cerocra ane neal UR ALA og 70 
Pra TiCeVNiIGueACACCIIVE fa lms at sex em ht betas sete ain s 88 
BarkevVilie.«churcn Organization, «ws; ests a. s 44 
POEGHEES MET Type wE Ly nig uke hy, Senha Ceres tN, ange a Ry 71 
PSCC EAI SCAN EIR eA Cake Ot oes ciettorbie es 101 
PBSC SP DE aah, ns ce i SE SO 70 
BECEKSITCSSEE VV itis ocho cere tie cae as otaee 71 
ETAL mE OUT ey it reece tetas Sis eta ss ok geet 71 
Bethany, chtirch orpanization.: 2.2.0. 0..26. 2. 43 
POSS Oa RES ii EES Se eR es a i 89 
PEEP METIANIC re eet. holon te ae ole tite oe eit 70 
Boards and committees of Elderships and Gen- 

RR ERCHOE SITE AY Es ste clay spines hota eae ecg as 67, 68 
Ber eeeeISSION AMIEL ye all. cite eae os. + ale c/a wheves 101 
CLP EEE I Ay SR 8 ca RC I a 70 
PMN ee PT MeN ec eer lg ek ote ren alle CD nce dns 70 
co ton inh ves 215 gos AL Ss Rese An, a Meee sing LE eae amen MICE ES os 100 
LED ESE ES cre a OR ting OR Bere area ert a 99 
RP TOMA LIN aot oA, itary, cc ie ek atelier ca thee 100 


Bovers tla By aoc eee ie setae Os ee alee eee 54 
Brown: Osos cee ki ce Rk Aes ta 94. 
Brambaughy Mo Ge i a oh atic okies ae ee 129 
Bucher, |e Res ayaa oe ets tote sets = ae ieee ar fee 129 
Byrnes, GReTL Peis tah oes a eee 71 
Camp Hill, church organization.............. 41 
Carvel <7] 3 Mirna alae oleae ay cae ae /1,. 49 
Gassell:.)) VMs cd carver toi) ens ae ees ade eee 71 
Gaswellj J.) Gi oe ooo Sr oe Mie Cae ie Bia eee 70 
Centennial Forward Movement : | 

Enaneurated es i577. egy ee eye eee eee 122 

Program SOfisiisavi eau ear caer eae eee L2e 

SUCCESS OE Mie a oe Ot Bah rare ete cha 124, 125 

General: Eldership 081925. 126, 127 
Centralia j-Collesiate dnstitute:2 os. <4.0.5 oes 88 
Chamberlin! lab ae Se oe Ea eee eee 71 
Chamberlin. “A SB, 229 ek pena se eee 102 
Change of name, “Church” to “Churches’”..... 68 
Chicagow Mission 322 davies sins Salas eae ee 55 
Christian Endeavor. wotka.t eeu cee 69 
Church Advocate. ..\.cias hedse eee eee 75 
Churchtown, church organization ............ 4} 
ColdersiTamessty tries st) a eee 75, 86 
Collegiate Institutego. wyatt ee 95 
onnor, . AC Sash se verdes <u eat ae 96. 
Cover, Howard Wii, eee Oro eee 103 
Cavert, Samuel McCrea. facies cu ene ee 129 
Crisman, Co Wieden coe ne eae ee eee 128 
Davis, George, Win fac. eee oe eee 89 
Deéshong, '-J W557 .2. oie load 5 ee 71 


Doctrinal statement of - 1849... 0.0. +.) 107-114 


Index 143 


Poyecte dia estatement, Of 1LOZ014 . 55 cess Eo aes 111-114 
PPPGOT TOSCO Naar, 2 au Sars fc) kd Flew cate ot 6s 45 
PM IET AS] IVE ER ys sls) cetn cies cre pie siaste ie Site tte wise 7\ 
STALST ER, Rg Co ibaa loa as Mia i aE di eS Da 89 
PEROT ALCL Ie Raia ae Re eee 104 
Education, General Eldership resolution on.... 85 
Eldership, first organization of............... 39 
Eldership courses of studies................. 96 
Elizabethtown, church organization........... 41 
mM AVe CO OUCKRar We nie ys crak aiine teats 89-95 
First Church: 

revanizalionuierian fete oe ccrcs «are ii Sedtecs 34 

elcinireso tml OCaliOnon twinge rte seer dente 50 ~ 

Ecclesiastical difficulties ...22........... 50, 51 
Rareedmen,wOrk AMOUR 3 ery vies kee cee cen 72 
Fredericksburg, church organization.......... 41 
ME HOSC VINE SVE TOR Re oho cee pic oe ee Pe Re tne 71 
Foreigners, work among........... ene. aie, 73 
MESIPICLOOK Pkt ee ae ea ee eee OO an 70 
_ LOSERS gg Opt fs a ts a6 Pehle Nar Se eg rh Oe L1276 
MRREPE EP VIAW As) cult fot isle codecs es heehee 80, 100 
PCL OINAS PN a ieis cis ee ties whe uo sels sean 129 
hal 1 EES BRS Pa ite A ar a Me 93, 122, 129 
PVT a Rg RIN Gace ae POLARS 2a pri 71 
IE AEAE SICH) CMP iy es fa siofes ele & eet aocke TEN LO 
Steerer A lire oN ia se Cha he es tae eee Ae 100 
General Eldership, organization of........... 46, 48 
Pe MISICELS Daa Giese rie vin ose ae es te oe 66 
MURILIPRRPOSHINE eens ees edie oe tame rk 45 
MPP PERD LALIT oat Gi, als vos aioss lbs CARTE On, om 74 


= BS) AER y I al ei ile pel a banner 100 


COVE Code eh ea ieee Cig s ct Devers penta 79, 80, 127 
CUUTVEL VV cietds aia Saat hoe Seta acre aia aera 89, 94, 122, 128 
Pari OOF! Lard onctare ase erent 44,45, 49, 53, 62, 86 
Plartmany Ly Bo cg yok el ee ee 54 
HelienstemnSanels i. i we oe ae ne 20 
Hemperly, Sadier Rout en ih ashe isteeee ee 80 
Hershey; Violats; (Cover osama ee ae 99 
Hickernells Thomas: 3% 0.45.0. G) oan coeree ha eee 43, 44 
Hickernells ofohti7 1.0 208 py noe eee eee 43,71 
Piollems, i Ayia. ha eae ae tic ate eee eet 71 
PlovertérGeorpev sh, ecient ye eee 129 
Plall ss Chloeet ik Se vise acta nee ee 102 
Huston; OB eo oe oe ae aes ene eee 71 
Illinois Eldership, organization of............ 66 
Indiana Eldership, organization of............ 46 
tadians, work among ee pone ey ere 72 
Iowa Eldership, organization of ............. 46 
Fettries, Hila ieasa ce eee ee ee 100 
Jumor-Intermediate Quarterly............... 80 
Kansas Eldership, organization of............ 66 
Wellers [acobye> ok Stag Die) cal oa eee 42, 43, 62 
Keptord?: [oceans ee, san ee cl eee 7\ 
Reeéplinger 21) vi ee ace. atten rae ee 70 
Radwell poMs Diy ook Sittac cules Ua eee 129 
Boirkpatrick, oiM. oso cutie alk Cort eee 70 
Kolemn yy [eMac tev. fake Staats cal ey leper eae 45,71 
Komp, MrsvDisCisn. 0 accra ate onan eee 100 
Kioogles Tey att Cee ate oe ha ene ee 71 
Landes Glaravn oo a See 98 
Pandes, ‘Preston As) 4 09.3. ace ee 103 


Mancdes;> Lessiesicc eh ye et oe 100 


Index 145 


Landisburg, church organization ............. 4] 
Hancaster,, church organization: .....0.0 04/6: 41 
Morera Wael eh sui iin aneisarciak sieht Bla’ 71, 89, 91 
MERC HIA IT Se A Ot] dep ee ira istic ek tes Te 100 
Ip CL EVD SAR eer it ae ate he ee otal og, 71 
BRAM TGV Ay V Vee IN we etl ray Meee Le eM, 78 
BSeUMATh VN Line oI yon es ra sae geen ol 104 
RR OVET ee ThE T, eine angie ips GUE Ao on ta es 104 
PSG? GE 9 RON geal Ln an OLN lene bait ete fe ae ae 71 
Linglestown, church organization............ 41 
Bebe COULCH OL OAnizatione: .crenicesghe hs 4] 
MGR Mes inantte ater setye rts Ge he sleek oe ee 45 
LT NTS a ey 9 6 PGW ee aa re ge A i SU DS 7A 
BOC SABRI CLOT on istye tee tie. athe Me Be ee 66, 71, 79 
ICR Sony Picea ee wc tebe make: Goeeth Raat ale 89 
BROUCLIGENY PaVVigs une oes ek Aa Se tee se, 71 
PR ORYO LL alsen io mets ake dts nc ah Sipe ee a 122, 129 
DAAC ey anes iPr cals Shes eee eae eae 42, 52 
Maine Eldership, organization of............ 66 
mareonester Vrs. Charlese'sa soiled este ardeeles 100 
Ree eater a arleS yo ese ee vik ce vietelete ees 89, 93, 96 
Re RIOR o0 0 Nite y, ford atse wails aa eve eek ' 
CENTS Rio 9 SS CRE ae Re a eee Se 53 
OOSSSETR (LS USSORS SSNS Sabie an aaa eae ea ar 79 
Maryland and Virginia Eldership, organization 

19 ei A 66 
Ue erespE AVAL 02) oe ete has este ashe ccc WAa Whe Web eke 42 
PREV EIGPOLLE Fo oobi tudes a sivia Velstew atone we 75 
i aoe Sy Uizd Dine ahs a be aie REM Ab Poa 129 
Mot Ae VV alliait) 5. foe fsa Ps ies okeic oes 42 


EAGT ERG Ely 4 AYA EUS ORS a Re RN 128 


146 Index 


Mechanicsburg, church organization.......... 
Meorew (Air ‘oie a Ne: tee ata civ onto 
Michigan Eldership, organization of.......... 
Middletown, church organization ............ 
Miller; sAnidrew. 3a.acch Oe whe crate ema eae 
MVitlers= Cesar aloe Si Barer: hee ese eee eae eto 
WVU THe rst, | is ear tee aces tak cl ae 
Mt» foy)«churchvorganizationy teense eee 
Missions, General Eldership resolution on..... 
Missouri Eldership, organization of........... 
Moyers,; Aarons: Bn. nid ured. at, Sie pd ioe hee eee 
Mivers, Hidithii 2% ncv cites sera hood toe ee eae 


Newbure, church "oreqnization ss... ae eee 
Newcomer SWESS yer S201 en tor ar, (ir cae ae eee 





Nevin, Drs Johns Wate Ged ae 
Nissleyj Edith jMaew opti ake deve | tibetan meee 
O Dery i Bees Sire ie On Wee ae) ee 
Ohioabldership, organization ofa.. austen 
Oklahoma and Indian Territory Eldership, or- 

ganization “of; Mae was te ean 1. tee en 
Old Harmony, church organization........... 
Olivers Hes Wee sg 08 fa ne Bel ans ee ee 
Oregon and Washington Eldership, organization 

OL tanta or, (ak nD a a, ee a 


Pittsburgh, mission work: in’. Jy Fee kee 
Hlowmany | VAY one To eM aan Oe eel 


41 
54 
66 
41 
42 
128 
71 
41 
bs 
66 
103 
80 
89 
66 
4] 
71 
100 
OS 
16 
104 
53 
46 


66 
44 
71 


66 
12 
44 
54 


Reve mel ethene Gauri tery ea ay awe se ele et leat em 89 
PRP UAT LCTIN We tly ic 2 ants ie Ne ape esl 4 80 
Pert Or DIA grr ce Son hie ecg sticibula sis tape aw a 81 
BM AO aL LOUSEA ace street Miers tr unUnn ets 82 
| iig Efe Co ves Me aries gO aOR gee UE Tt I dn Rabe 71 
CERIN S OF Sig Cred "his Ea ni ek Naar em 78, 79 
CURES od BES NIE oie eae Zc UAE uate tae rag 70 
TG OTI Cl cae UNL Coe ie te a ae aa LS FA 
Bee TI AVVO nace are Ne cA! Sts cd at opoduc cee 96 
Peele mate ATM Vine Se, eet Er ec ete ee Ban 100 
gece (AOS d RAR aon ae ea Ne rae Lape RA GRID Pa 129 
PROC MEME OL MC MURA Metron stock Allon ee ants tek kc Seabey 66 
POSS HOSC HOM mee ah Ard tam RAR OR Iat. ADC L Sota as 52 
ROC COTO Rater ine ios sere rk Sot «teh 71 
Sieger tho ih RMA 8 1) Saree tet ls Bra iypane ie are ae 70 
SP PATUIICT a Ca MAY WOR haa otic hss Wcities usa Sone, 71 
Semi-centennial, celebration of............... 71 
BO MersOU Le IT SECLILGt 0.0. s oh ales heme ed a 87 
Shippensburg, church organization........... 4] 
REET eae ee Ee he oh A ea thc g Ne VAN re hs 
ELSE DRL SE RS aR ge OR hea re a Re 71,79 
COLIC R i oi lacs Slice a spas soe ia eee 66,715 78a 
Pivctmpaititudevof church ss... 6.. 1s a ce 114,115 
Slippery Rock, church organization.......:... ++ 
“age USES GRAD ee ae 2 apie gn ae eae Zl 
Sater re alta: SOavel yi. si ks eis bere yee os 100 
DSi. SM OU SO 2 a Ree i ge 71 
Southern Indiana Eldership, organization of... 66 
PEE CLT e te ee Pt ee ge na bate ot Sw 100 
Bares ITS .CrcOrre Wi. isk ac alate hots cts 100, 122, 128 


SME COUNTER IOSHONS.. Ora. Lied 4 ubiotw foe nes Ge 131-139 


148 Index 


Summit) Do Seis heeeae Latee: ean ee 70 
SUNDCOIES ie EP Da ha ea cede ced poke 80 
Suda ys Seno) AChivities,. Wout encte. ss eeceeene ale 69 
SUMIG Yes CHOOLTG Cn mt fae wr eeee ee ree 78 
Sunday School. Workman) Wp ihe. 79 
NS WEP Z STAR ota tei Calne ti neh ae 71 
Swatara. Collegiate: Institutes *! 4,00. tees 86 
Thomas: 2 Ft sHl deco cereus is Se oe. ca 52, 54, 76 ,78 
‘Lemperance, attituderof churcht 2.0.1 aes 117, 118 
Texas and Arkansas Eldership, organization of. 66 
Dtirner: WF inane tress aie eee ee 129 
Maar pitas: (Wisse bene Per Aine, cea seek eve oe ne 128 
Ulubarialimission freldiite) ces eee he ee 99 
LU pderraph, Svirsir fogler fuletsce ssh ae foc een 128 
Updegraph, ? kilos iach es on te ee eee 1235124 
Vanes W liar y34 900) antag sao eee eee eee 53 
Warvattitude of church. 5 eee ee LIOS117 
Wertz." bantell sc. tin sna aeie ee ee eee 45 
Weishampels|.° Rio ere air ey cae ene 54,75 
West Pennsylvania Eldership, organization of.. 46 
West Virginia Eldership, organization of...... 66 
West Virginia Eldership (South) organization 
OR roe gee adi EC Otte LA 0 st ee 66 
Wihislers? Bo Heo aek feta eee oe eee ae 104 
WV hnrslens Far MV ee ae a ee 129 
Wilson: 2 Aw iicince kal aes ee ee eee 70 
Wilson! Cen Sef ene ae eae ee 71 
Wilson sGe Way Bese te 4 ae ae ee 71 
Winebrenner, John: 
Birthand early, tet . ey eee eee 19 


Fdueation |) uti Ces Sere oe ee 20 


ROIVETSICT Sle hoo id ta ie Bois tla ee ne 21, 24 
Seal Oe MIORMILITINSET 1s rahe occa ee Pe ese te 20, 24 
COTTA IOI eee art: ee eet re er sae ee OLE IY ta 
Pita astoraleat sce ren nket athens ih tt 27-30 
Separation from German Reformed Church 28, 29 
BithcavReuitattone ee snr con cay .tacey oc: 31 
Doctrinal -views, change of; 02/07. 02... 35-38 
aya by veh 5948, POR) ed os Pea Shak etna A nae 36 
fenaractem 0G Nise reachiny same: aids tal, ate. 59, 60 
PO ectense DALE cei forts ah Raat Ye tie git tok Wie aa le 61 
PECICOT EALEENT ore erat ie eke Sein at ae ee se 44-95 
ACHR ATA}, Any Dur Gee SRA SBR = SE A eo 83 
PeeTSOlial a ppeatalceres oe pat ten may 7s oe, 56 
Doniesticar clationsa on sii koe ek nan 4 afi 
hersoGaleappraisementie.. chia atti ok oe 63 
Partintea messager nents: eet yy ee ee 52 
Prat igiicmilinerant wits. gear se ose cee 52 
NOCKeV Sstestiiiiunialace: % wee etna ae mee 62 
Atiocriplion OiminOnumentie secre Ca rie 64 
ESET Cea aoa BG eet i gets SRE el pe iz 
BM VIDE Vitiusrntr nn othtaen ects ae ota eh 102 
aS aT CORO Dg TAG ANS aE aC 79 
Woman’s General Missionary Society......... 98-100 
Bear Nex fc On Fe pre Whos aha so. ove Gente tes 735 77a ke2h28 


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